PUBLICATIONS 

OF  THK 

University  of  Pennsylvania 


SERIES   IN 
POLITICAL    ECONOMY   AND    PUBLIC    LAW 


ornia 

'lity 


No.  4 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth 

—  BY  — 

SIMON    N.   PATTEN 
Professor  of  Political  Economy,  University  of  Pennsylvania 


SECOND  EDITION 


Published  /or  ike  University 

PHILADELPHIA 

1901 

GiNN  &  Co.,  Selling  Agents,  Tremont  Place,  Boston,  Mass. 


PRICE  FIFTY  CENTS 


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LIBRARY 

CALiFOSHiA 
SAN  DIEGO 


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PUBLICATIONS 

OF  THE 

University  of  Pennsylvania 


SERIES   IN 
POLITICAL    ECONOMY   AND    PUBLIC    LAW 


No.  4 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth 


SIMON    N.   PATTEN 
Professor  of  Political  Economy,  University  of  Pennsylvania 


SECOND   EDITION 


Published  for  the  University 

PHILADELPHIA 

1901 

GiNN  &  Co.,  Sellingr  Agents,  Tremont  Place,  Boston,  Mass. 


PRICE  FIFTY  CENTS 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY, 

LANCASTER,   PA. 


Contents. 


Paob. 
Introduction 5 

I.  The  Causes  of  the  Intensity  of  Feewng  Derived  from 
Food, 9 

II.  The  Influence  of  the  Cost  of  Commodities  upon  their 
Consumption, 17 

III.  The  Causes  Obscuring  the  Primary  Laws  of  Consump- 

tion,   24 

IV.  The  Growth  of  New  Pleasures, 30 

V.  The  Love  of  Home  and  Country, 37 

VI.  The  Standard  of  Life, 43 

VII.  The  Best  Use  of  Land, 52 

VIII.  The  Outlook  for  the  Future, 62 


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http://www.archive.org/details/consumptionofweaOOpattiala 


Introduction. 


IT  IS  the  purpose  of  this  essay  to  bring  all  those  facts  into 
harmonious  relations  to  one  another  which  throw  light 
upon  the  laws  regulating  the  consumption  of  wealth.  These 
laws  are  not  merely  the  laws  of  human  enjoyment.  Doubt- 
less the  desire  for  happiness  is  always  an  important  element 
in  determining  consumption,  yet  it  is  modified  by  many  other 
elements  to  such  a  degree  that  our  consumption  could  not  be 
inferred  solely  from  the  relative  intensity  of  our  desires.  Econo- 
mists have  too  often  forgotten  that  the  pains  of  producing  com- 
modities have  an  influence  upon  the  order  of  their  consumption. 
We  produce  to  consume  ;  but  what  we  will  desire  to  consume  is 
largely  determined  by  the  cost  of  production.  While  produc- 
tion is  determined  by  consumption,  the  latter  is  itself  largely 
modified  by  the  former.  Every  improvement  in  production 
thus  changes  the  order  in  which  difierent  commodities  are  con- 
sumed, by  taking  more  from  the  cost  of  some  commodities  than 
from  others. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  great  need  to  examine  the  laws  of 
human  enjoyment.  Men  do  not  always  have  the  same  desire 
for  a  commodity.  With  individuals  the  change  is  very  slow  ; 
but  from  age  to  age  there  are  important  modifications  in  the 
demand  for  commodities.  Some  pleasures  are  growing  while 
others  cease  to  have  their  former  power.  There  seems,  also,  to 
be  a  general  direction  along  which  changes  in  consumption  are 
forcing  mankind,  the  causes  of  which  must  be  discovered  before 
the  laws  of  consumption  can  be  explained. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  consumption  as  a  whole  needs  no 
encouragement :  all  that  is  produced  will  find  consumers,  if 
there  is  no  obstacle  in  the  way.  The  interest  of  the  public  lies 
solely  in  the  direction  which  the  consumption  of  a  given  amount 
of  wealth  will  take  under  different  conditions.  Improvements 
in  production,  and  the  growth  of  new  states,  as  well  as  the 


vi  Introduction . 

gradual  modification  of  inherited  ideas  and  customs,  have  dur- 
ing this  century  changed  the  direction  of  consumption  so  fully 
as  to  create  a  new  order  of  consumption.  Another  epoch  in  the 
development  of  mankind  has  arrived,  in  which  men  will  be 
compelled  to  change  their  habits  and  diet,  in  order  to  avoid  the 
new  evils,  and  to  secure  the  new  pleasures  connected  with  their 
present  environment. 

These  changes  are  of  especial  importance  to  a  new  country 
like  America,  where  all  the  elements  which  determine  the 
direction  of  consumption  have  been  already  so  much  modified 
that  the  habits,  instincts  and  feelings  we  have  inherited  from 
our  forefathers  are  no  longer  safe  guides  for  us  to  follow.  Our 
climate  and  our  food  supply  are  so  different  from  that  of  Europe 
that  we  must  learn  to  eat  and  drink  new  articles,  and  clothe 
ourselves  in  a  new  way,  before  we  can  make  the  best  use  of  our 
resources  with  the  least  pain  and  suffering  on  our  part.  The 
extreme  cold  of  our  winters  and  the  great  heat  of  our  sum- 
mers will  necessitate  a  much  greater  change  in  the  food  and 
clothing  from  summer  to  winter  than  is  needed  in  the  more 
even  climate  of  Europe.  Pork  and  corn  will  not  be  too  warm 
as  foods  for  winter,  nor  will  rice  and  fruit  be  too  cool  for 
summer.  Drinking  habits  which  are  harmless,  or  at  least 
not  very  injurious  in  the  damp  or  cool  climate  of  Europe, 
become  destructive  of  health  and  honor  in  the  dry,  parching 
heat  of  an  American  summer.  The  German  who  sleeps  at 
home  all  the  year  through  between  two  feather  ticks,  soon 
changes  his  habit  of  sleeping  when  he  arrives  in  America. 
He  thinks,  however,  that  he  can  still  drink  a  quart  of  beer 
with  as  little  harm  as  in  his  old  home.  It  will  take  a  much 
longer  time  to  break  up  his  drinking  than  his  sleeping  habits  ; 
yet  the  same  causes  are  working  in  both  cases,  and  will  force 
him,  or  at  least  his  descendants,  to  become  American  in  the 
one  respect  as  in  the  other. 

In  order  to  bring  out  clearly  the  laws  of  consumption,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  view  the  field  of  economic  phenomena  from  a 
new  standpoint.  Just  as  the  point  of  view  giving  the  best 
analysis  of  production  is  different  from  that  needed  for  good 
results  in  distribution,  so  in  consumption,  yet  another  analysis 


IntroducHon.  vii 

of  the  same  phenomena  must  be  made  before  its  laws  can  be 
clearly  seen.  The  distinctions  which  must  be  emphasized  to 
show  the  workings  of  primary  laws  of  consumption  are  very 
different  from  those  which  are  decisive  in  establishing  the  best 
known  laws  of  production  and  distribution.  The  effects  of 
primary  laws  become  prominent  only  in  exceptional  cases,  and 
the  search  for  such  cases  takes  the  student  into  a  very  different 
quarter  of  the  economic  world  from  that  into  which  other  in- 
vestigations have  taken  him. 

There  is  also  another  way  in  which  the  study  of  consumption 
seems  likely  to  differ  from  that  of  the  better  known  departments 
of  economics,  and  especially  from  that  of  production.  In  the 
progress  of  a  science,  the  inductive  truths  are  more  easily  rec- 
ognized and  are  those  which  are  first  discovered  and  empha- 
sized. The  more  deductive  laws  are  obscured  by  the  effects  of 
transient  causes  which  hide  them  from  view  until  the  more  ap- 
parent truths  of  the  science  have  been  seen  and  developed. 
Production,  as  a  department,  was  worked  out  before  distribu- 
tion, because  more  of  its  laws  are  inductive.  If  Adam  Smith, 
had  not  previously  developed  the  doctrines  of  production,  the 
work  of  Ricardo  would  have  been  impossible. 

In  consumption,  we  have  a  department  which  is  of  necessity 
much  more  deductive  than  either  of  the  other  departments  of 
economics.  It  has  its  basis  on  facts  in  human  nature  and  in 
society,  which  are  of  the  most  primary  character,  and  hence 
are  most  easily  hidden  beneath  a  mass  of  obscuring  facts  which 
have  their  origin  in  a  multitude  of  secondary  causes.  The 
theory  of  consumption  rests  upon  the  laws  of  pleasure  and 
pain,  modified  by  the  social  environment  in  which  men  live. 

There  must,  therefore,  be  an  air  of  unreality  in  a  discussion 
carried  on  in  terms  so  far  removed  from  the  concrete  world. 
So  many  secondary  facts  are  for  the  time  overlooked,  in  order 
to  show  the  working  of  primary  laws,  that  the  conclusions 
reached  often  seem  to  conflict  with  well-established  inductions. 

The  ultimate  laws  of  a  science,  however,  cannot  be  investi- 
gated in  any  other  way.  They  are  so  far  from  the  surface  that 
their  effects  come  into  view  mingled  with  a  multitude  of  effects 
of  more  apparent  causes,  from  which  they  must  be  artificially 


viii  Introduction. 

separated  before  they  can  be  studied  with  care.  There  is  no 
likelihood  that  the  influence  of  these  secondary  causes  will  be 
overlooked.  When  the  eflfects  of  the  primary  laws  are  fully 
recognized,  it  will  be  an  easy  task  to  show  how  they  are  modi- 
fied in  society  by  disturbing  causes.  Until  that  time  comes, 
it  is  better  to  fix  the  attention  solely  upon  the  fundamental 
laws  and  their  influence  upon  society,  even  though  there  is 
some  danger  that  for  a  time  the  counter  forces  may  be  neglected. 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth 


I. 

THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   INTENSITY   OF   FEELING   DERIVED 
FROM    FOOD. 

It  is  impossible  to  determine  accurately  the  laws  which  fix 
the  intensity  of  feeling  derived  from  the  consumption  of  food, 
without  tracing  the  past  development  of  man.  Had  the  food 
of  man  always  been  as  abundant  and  as  varied  as  it  now  is 
among  the  more  advanced  races,  there  would  be  some  grounds 
for  supposing  that  our  present  appetites  are  the  necessary  re- 
sult of  some  fixed  element  in  our  natures.  It  is,  however,  but 
a  few  generations  at  most,  since  our  ancestors  lived  under 
widely  different  conditions,  where  a  keen  appetite  was  their 
chief  source  of  pleasure.  Only  those  who  had  a  great  relish 
for  food  could  withstand  the  hardships  they  had  to  endure  and 
have  a  sufficient  inducement  to  earn  a  living  under  conditions 
where  the  returns  for  labor  are  so  limited. 

The  primitive  man  had  no  regular  industry.  Thinking  of 
the  morrow,  he  was  forced  to  take  what  food  he  could  find,  and 
when  and  where  it  pleased  nature  to  give  it.  At  one  season, 
fish  was  abundant ;  at  another,  plenty  of  game  could  be  found  ; 
and  at  another,  grains  or  fruits  afibrded  a  possible  means  of 
subsistence.  No  matter  how  abundant  such  food  may  be  at 
times,  yet  there  are  long  intervals  when  they  are  very  scarce. 
During  these  intervals,  starvation  and  famine  do  their  work, 
and  sweep  off  all  those  who  have  not  vitality  enough  to  enable 
them  to  exist  a  long  time  upon  an  insufficient  diet.  Thus, 
periods  of  starvation  and  plenty  follow  one  another  rapidly. 
One  month  the  people  are  feeding  upon  the  generous  bounties 
of  nature ;  the  next  few  weeks  brings  them  again  upon  the 
verge  of  starvation  when  their  food  is  so  scarce  that  they  can 


lo  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

live  only  by  drawing  upon  that  store  of  subsistence  which  a 
period  of  plenty  gives  to  a  vigorous  body  in  the  form  of  muscle 
and  flesh. 

Of  such  a  man,  there  is  one  thing  that  it  would  be  safe  to 
predict.  The  strength  of  his  appetite  for  food  must  be  very 
great.  Had  he  a  poor  appetite,  he  would  eat  only  enough 
during  the  periods  of  plenty  to  supply  his  present  wants. 
When  the  season  of  scarcity  came,  his  system  could  not  endure 
the  hardships  of  starvation,  and  he  would  be  carried  off  by 
disease  or  famine.  Such  a  man  must  have  the  power  to  store 
up  fat  in  his  system  just  as  a  cow  or  a  hog  does ;  and  to  do 
this,  he  must,  like  the  lower  animals,  have  an  intense  desire 
for  food,  and  so  keen  an  appetite  that  he  will  not  be  satisfied 
until  long  after  the  present  needs  of  his  system  are  supplied. 

That  the  primitive  man  has  a  powerful  appetite,  can  be  readily 
seen  from  all  his  actions.  When  he  has  food,  he  has  no  idea 
how  to  use  it  with  moderation.  If  an  animal  be  slain,  a  great 
feast  is  at  once  provided,  and  enough  food  will  be  gormandized 
in  a  day  to  have  supplied  the  participants  with  nourishment 
for  a  week.  There  seems  to  be  no  limit  to  the  appetites  of  such 
people,  and  they  cease  eating  only  when  the  extreme  limit  of 
their  stomachs'  capacity  is  reached.  Their  intense  desire  for 
food  is  also  shown  in  many  other  ways.  The  many  disgusting 
dishes  of  which  they  partake  with  the  keenest  pleasure  tell 
how  strong  is  the  impulse  that  leads  them  to  gluttony.  Surely 
no  one  not  controlled  by  an  abnormal  appetite  will  eat  the  half- 
rotten  meat  which  seems  so  great  a  luxury  to  many  tribes. 

The  primitive  man  needed  a  strong  appetite  to  withstand  the 
hardships  that  an  irregular  food-supply  forced  him  to  undergo. 
*A  weaker  appetite  would  have  unfitted  him  for  his  environ- 
ment, and  driven  him  out  of  the  world.  The  slow  but  steady 
development  of  man  has  gradually  given  to  him  steadier 
sources  of  food-supply.  Starvation  and  famine  have  become 
less  frequent,  until  at  length,  in  the  civilized  races  of  to-day, 
the  means  of  subsistence  have  become  so  regular  that  the 
average  man  never  feels  keenly  the  pangs  of  hunger. 

No  one,  I  trust,  will  deny  that  along  with  the  increased  regu- 
larity in  the  supply  of  food,  the  strength  of  the  appetite  for 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  li 

food  has  been  diminished.  The  love  of  coarse  food  in  great 
quantities  has  entirely  disappeared.  Feasts  are  no  longer  glut- 
tonous debauches  lasting  for  several  days.  Doubtless  we  are 
far  from  a  condition  in  which  our  appetites  are  in  harmony 
with  our  present  environment,  yet  we  have  at  least  progressed 
far  enough  to  make  the  coarse  foods  and  drinks  of  our  ancestors 
disgusting  to  us. 

We  must,  therefore,  examine  the  changes  which  occur  when 
a  nation  using  but  one  kind  of  food  begins  to  use  a  more  varied 
diet  through  any  change  equalizing  the  cost  of  production  of 
several  important  kinds  of  food.  Let  us  take,  for  example,  a 
man  who  is  accustomed  to  potatoes  as  a  sole  diet.  At  his  din- 
ner the  first  potato  he  eats  will  give  him  a  great  pleasure.  The 
second  he  will  also  greatly  relish,  although  his  appetite  will 
yet  be  less  keen.  From'  each  of  the  following  potatoes,  he  will 
derive  less  pleasure,  until  at  length  no  further  enjoyment  can 
be  obtained  by  continuing  to  eat.  This  point  is  called  the 
"point  of  satiety,"  and  upon  its  position  depends  largely  the 
character  and  habits  of  each  man.  Will  the  appetite  be  satis- 
fied with  three  potatoes,  or  will  four  or  even  more  be  desired  ? 
Evidently  there  is  a  connection  between  the  point  of  satiety 
and  the  needs  of  the  system.  The  man  who  uses  his  head 
more  than  his  hands  will,  when  eating,  reach  the  point  of 
satiety  much  more  quickly  than  will  the  man  who  is  accus- 
tomed to  hard  manual  work.  The  use  of  machinery  takes  away 
much  of  the  hard  work  needed  in  the  past,  and  allows  a  man 
to  survive  with  a  much  smaller  appetite  than  formerly.  It  is 
also  plain  that  those  who  are  daily  confined  in  close  rooms,  by 
sedentary  occupations,  soon  lose  a  part  of  their  appetites.  They 
have  in  their  food  a  much  smaller  source  of  enjoyment  than 
when  they  were  in  the  pure  air  and  in  constant  motion. 

Facts  like  these  are  afforded  by  the  daily  observations  of 
every  intelligent  person.  They  show  that  the  desire  for  food 
is  not  a  fixed  quantity  independent  of  the  environment.  Yet, 
important  as  they  are,  they  deserve  no  more  emphasis  than 
should  be  given  the  changes  in  appetite  which  come  from  in* 
creased  regularity  in  the  food-supply. 

All  these  changes  are  overlooked,  because  from  their  nature 


12  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

they  cannot  come  under  the  direct  observation  of  any  one. 
Only  by  a  careful  historical  inquiry  do  great  changes  in  taste 
and  appetite  become  visible.  The  primitive  man  is  apt  to  be 
regarded  as  similar  to  the  man  of  the  present.  Men  have  not 
that  training  which  is  needed  to  give  a  vivid  concept  of  the  his- 
torical development  of  mankind.  The  fixity  of  man's  nature 
has  also  been  emphasized  by  all  the  ideas  we  have  derived  from 
the  philosophical  world.  So  many  of  the  economic  premises 
have  been  derived  from  this  source,  that  it  is  difiicult  to  free 
ourselves  from  them,  and  replace  them  with  others  in  harmony 
with  the  gradual  development  which  history  shows  to  have 
taken  place. 

There  is  yet  another  result  of  progress  deserving  attention  in 
this  connection.  The  primitive  man  had  so  little  shelter  that 
the  warmth  of  his  body  was  due  to  'the  effects  of  the  large 
quantities  of  food  he  consumed.  His  protection  from  cold  came 
from  his  blood,  and  not  from  the  artificial  protection  warm 
houses  and  clothing  now  give  every  one.  It  is  only  within  the 
present  age  that  the  houses  and  public  buildings  have  been  so 
well  constructed  as  to  afibrd  a  complete  protection  from  external 
conditions.  Even  at  the  present  time  in  many  parts  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  but  a  sparing  use  is  made  of  fire  thoroughly  to  warm 
houses,  churches  and  other  buildings.  Many  are  yet  living 
who  can  recall  the  time  when  churches  were  not  heated  in  this 
country.  Every  visitor  to  Europe  knows  how  limited  is  the 
use  which  they  make  of  heat  to  warm  their  churches,  or  even 
their  dwelling  houses.  The  steady  increase  in  the  amount  of 
clothing  sold  to  all  the  civilized  races  shows  in  the  same  way, 
the  growing  reliance  upon  artificial  protection  from  cold  and 
dampness.  By  these  changes  the  need  of  food  is  diminished, 
and  the  appetite  must  be  reduced  until  it  adjusts  itself  to  the 
needs  of  the  system. 

The  point  of  satiety  is  further  conditioned  by  the  nutritive 
qualities  of  the  food  consumed.  Some  kinds  of  food  have  a 
greater  proportion  of  nutritive  matter  than  others,  and  of  these 
H  smaller  quantity  will  supply  all  the  needs  of  the  body  than 
would  be  required  of  the  less  nutritive  kinds  of  food.  If  a 
person  accustomed  to  a  meat  diet  should  be  compelled  to  sub- 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  13 

sist  on  potatoes,  his  appetite  would  give  out  long  before  he  had 
eaten  enough  to  supply  the  wants  of  his  system.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  a  person  accustomed  to  a  potato  diet  should  suddenly 
change  to  a  meat  diet,  his  appetite  would  be  so  great  that  he 
would  eat  much  more  than  his  system  demanded.  Suppose  a 
man  whose  sole  diet  has  been  potatoes  to  come  under  conditions 
where  wheat-bread  will  form  a  substantial  part  of  his  diet,  evi- 
dently his  appetite  will  be  too  strong  for  his  new  conditions. 
If  he  eat  half  his  usual  allowance  of  potatoes,  and  then  change 
to  bread,  he  will  eat  more  bread  than  would  be  an  equivalent 
for  the  potatoes  he  would  have  eaten  if  potatoes  were  his  sole 
diet.  A  change  of  food  revives  the  appetite,  and  a  person  will 
eat  more  than  his  system  requires.  On  the  other  hand,  his 
system  will  require  less  food  if  the  diet  becomes  more  varied. 
The  different  articles  of  food  supplement  one  another,  and  all 
the  needs  of  the  system  are  supplied  with  much  less  waste  than 
if  a  less  varied  diet  were  consumed.  If,  then,  the  appetite  of 
a  person  increases  as  his  diet  becomes  more  varied,  while  with 
this  more  varied  diet  his  system  requires  less  food,  a  change  to 
a  more  varied  diet  will  destroy  the  previous  harmony  between 
the  needs  of  the  system  and  the  appetite.  This  harmony  can 
be  restored  only  when  the  appetite  has  been  so  reduced  that  the 
point  of  satiety  will  be  reached  as  soon  as  the  needs  of  the 
system  have  been  satisfied.  With  every  increase  in  the  variety 
of  our  food,  the  intensity  of  pleasure  derived  from  the  food 
must  be  reduced ;  so  that,  when  the  system  becomes  accus- 
tomed to  the  new  diet,  the  point  of  satiety  will  be  reached 
sooner  than  was  formerly  the  case. 

The  truth  of  this  law  is  much  obscured  in  actual  life  by  the 
conditions  under  which  our  civilization  has  arisen.  In  most 
countries,  during  the  earlier  stages  of  their  development,  those 
articles  of  food  whose  consumption  gives  the  greatest  pleasure 
could  not  be  used  to  any  extent  on  account  of  their  great  cost. 
Articles  like  potatoes  end  rice  had  so  low  a  cost  that  they  were 
consumed,  although  the  pleasure  derived  from  them  was  much 
less  than  could  be  obtained  from  more  palatable  food.  At  the 
present  time  a  more  varied  diet  means  the  consumption  of  a 
greater  proportion  of  these   more   desirable   articles,  such  as 


14  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

wheat-bread,  meat  and  liquors.  In  this  way  a  more  varied  diet 
excites  the  appetite  in  a  double  way  and  greatly  increases  the 
intensity  of  feeling  derived  from  the  consumption  of  food.  Our 
appetite  will  in  time  adjust  itself  to  the  new  conditions,  and 
the  intensity  of  feeling  derived  from  food  will  be  so  reduced 
that  the  point  of  satiety  will  be  reached  as  soon  as  the  needs  of 
the  system  are  satisfied. 

There  is  no  necessary  connection  between  the  intensity  of 
feeling  which  we  derive  from  the  consumption  of  food,  and  its 
ability  to  supply  the  needs  of  our  system.  Water  and  air  are 
necessary  to  our  systems,  and  yet  we  derive  but  little  pleasure 
from  their  consumption.  An  abundant  supply  of  any  article 
of  food  causes  us  to  lose  our  relish  for  it.  This  fact  is  plainly 
visible  in  the  effect  which  the  increased  consumption  of  liquor 
has  on  the  tastes  of  those  who  use  it.  It  is  universally  admitted 
that  the  demand  for  strong  drinks  is  rapidly  increasing.  Even 
in  France  and  Germany,  where  the  use  of  light  liquors  has 
been  so  prevalent,  the  public  taste  is  much  less  discriminating 
than  formerly.  The  change  from  light  to  strong  drinks  shows 
that  the  public  is  losing  that  delicate  sense  of  discrimination 
which  is  the  cause  of  intense  pleasure,  and  that  it  is  seeking, 
through  an  increase  of  quantity  and  stimulation,  to  obtain  a 
substitute  for  what  it  has  lost. 

The  reduction  of  the  appetite  is  also  made  evident  by  the 
increase  in  the  variety  of  drinks.  Men  with  strong  appetites 
have  only  one  favorite  drink,  and  look  down  upon  those  who 
use  another  kind.  To  drink  several  different  liquors  in  succes- 
sion shows  a  loss  of  appetite,  since  with  a  weak  appetite  the 
point  of  satiety  for  one  drink  is  reached  long  before  the  craving 
for  liquor  is  satisfied. 

With  tobacco,  also,  the  effects  of  weaker  appetites  can  be 
noticed.  The  disuse  of  snuffing  and  chewing  shows  that  the 
coarser  uses  of  tobacco  have  become  disgusting,  and  this  would 
not  happen,  if  the  appetite  had  not  been  reduced.  The  in- 
creased use  of  strong  tobacco  for  smoking  is  an  evidence  of  the 
same  change  that  is  shown  by  the  greater  use  of  strong  drinks. 
The  mass  of  the  tobacco  no  longer  comes  from  Cuba,  or  other 
localities,  noted  for  the  fine  flavors  of  their  product,  but  from 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  15 

Wisconsin,  Connecticut  or  other  regions  growing  the  coarser 
tobacco.  The  use  of  cigarettes  tells  the  same  story,  since  in 
this  way  even  the  stems  of  the  leaf  can  be  smoked. 

I  do  not,  however,  wish  to  infer  that  every  increase  of  va- 
riety in  food  reduces  the  intensity  of  pleasure  derived  from  it. 
The  intensity  of  feeling  obtained  by  consuming  the  first  por- 
tions of  each  kind  of  food,  may  be  as  great  as  ever,  and  still 
the  feeling  of  satiety  for  this  kind  of  food,  be  reached  much 
more  quickly  than  if  this  one  article  of  food  was  the  sole  diet. 
The  pleasure  derived  from  the  first  portions  is  somewhat  re- 
duced in  the  refined  man  ;  yet  the  most  remarkable  change  is 
the  quickness  with  which  the  point  of  satiety  is  reached.  A 
small  portion  is  delightful ;  but  a  mere  mass  is  disgusting  to 
him.  To  his  ancestors,  however,  quantity  was  an  element  of 
pleasure.  They  could  make  a  whole  meal  of  one  article,  and 
enjoy  it  to  the  end. 

The  appetite  of  a  person  is  strong  in  whom  the  point  of 
satiety  for  some  one  article  is  not  reached  until  the  stomach  is 
filled.  A  person  who  can  make  a  whole  meal  of  soup  is  a  good 
example.  A  diet  of  salt  pork  and  potatoes  shows  a  like  appe- 
tite. A  preference  for  fat  meats,  and  especially  for  food  fried 
in  fat,  tells  the  same  story.  The  love  of  a  boiled  dinner,  where 
the  articles  are  cooked  together  in  a  way  to  give  them  a  com- 
mon flavor,  has  the  same  cause.  In  short,  the  stronger  the 
appetite,  the  fewer  the  articles  to  which  the  appetite  is  limited. 
Other  articles  are  shut  out  because  the  intensity  of  the  pleasure 
derived  from  this  accustomed  food  remains  greater  to  the  end 
than  that  secured  from  other  articles.  With  a  strong  appetite, 
there  is  a  long  and  complete  satisfaction  of  some  one  desire, 
followed  by  a  dormant  sleepy  state,  until  the  appetite  is  again 
revived  by  hunger.  The  boa  constrictor  furnishes  an  extreme 
case  of  this  class  of  appetites,  as  it  has  but  little  life  unless 
hungry. 

A  person  with  a  weak  appetite  may  be  healthy,  but  the  point 
of  satiety  for  any  one  article  is  reached  so  quickly  that  several 
articles  must  be  eaten  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  system.  Such 
a  person  in  eating,  always  changes  back  and  forth  rapidly  from 
one  dish  to  another  so  as  to  revive  his  appetite  by  the  taste  of 


1 6  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

some  new  dish.  A  few  bites  from  any  one  dish  satisfy  him,  and 
this  desire  does  not  come  back  until  it  has  been  "restored  by 
trying  some  other  dish.  The  desire  to  drink  constantly  while 
eating  has  the  same  cause.  In  this  way,  a  new  vigor  is  given 
to  the  appetite  by  the  sudden  change  in  feeling  which  a  fresh, 
cool,  or  a  very  hot  drink  will  produce.  To  have  a  weak  appe- 
tite means  to  enjoy  intensely  and  to  tire  quickly.  No  one 
pleasure  will  continually  satisfy  such  an  appetite  without  any 
change  to  other  pleasures.  The  strength  of  the  appetite  is  de- 
termined not  so  much  by  what  a  person  enjoys,  as  by  the  rap- 
idity with  which  he  tires  of  each  pleasure. 

This  difference  may  be  illustrated  by  letting  the  various  ar- 
ticles of  food  be  represented  by  a,  b,  and  c,  with  each  of  which 
a  co-efl&cient  is  joined  showing  the  degree  of  intensity  of  feel- 
ing derived  from  its  consumption.  Suppose  a  man  with  a 
strong  appetite  derives  twelve  degrees  of  intensity  from  the 
first  portion  consumed  while  a  man  with  a  weaker  appetite  de- 
rives eight  similar  degrees.  As  the  pleasure  from  succeeding 
portions  would  be  less,  we  might  have  the  following  order  in 
consumption  : 

Strong  appetite — one  article, 

12a,  iia,  10a,  ga,  8a,  ja,  6a,  ^a,  4a,  ^a,  2a,  \a,  dormant  state. 
Weak  appetite — three  articles, 

8a,  8^,  8c,  'ja,  'jb,  6c,  5a,  4^,  3^,  point  of  satiety. 

With  the  first  person  the  point  of  satiety  is  not  reached  until 
the  stomach  is  so  loaded  that  he  becomes  drowsy.  The  second 
person  avoids  the  reduction  of  pleasure  as  long  as  possible  by 
a  change  of  food.  I  put  the  point  of  satiety  after  three  units 
of  pleasure,  because  with  a  weak  appetite  a  reaction  against 
food  sets  in,  by  which  the  pleasure  of  eating  is  quickly  cut  off 
at  the  close  of  the  meal.  It  is  of  course  arbitrary  to  put  this 
reaction  at  three  units,  since  the  weaker  the  appetite  the  higher 
will  the  unit  be. 

We  have  now  the  leading  causes  which  reduce  the  strength 
of  our  appetites.  A  regular  supply  of  food  prevents  the  recur- 
rence of  seasons  of  scarcity  and  plenty.  An  extended  use  of 
machinery  and  of  natural  agents  lessens  the  need  of  muscular 
exertion.     Well-constructed  buildings,  adequate  clothing,  and 


The  Consumptioji  of  Wealth.  17 

cheap  fuel  reduce  the  supply  of  carbonaceous  food  required  to 
keep  our  bodies  warm.  The  great  variety  in  our  food  allows 
each  article  to  supplement  the  others  in  such  a  way  that  a  small 
quantity  of  food  will  supply  all  our  bodily  needs.  From  these 
causes  combined,  there  must  be  many  important  changes  in  the 
choice  we  make  between  different  kinds  of  food.  Many  dis- 
turbing causes  retard  these  changes,  and  obscure  the  results 
under  the  new  conditions  in  which  men  now  live  ;  yet  with 
every  marked  improvement  in  economic  affairs,  the  temporary 
causes,  even  though  still  prominent,  lose  some  of  their  power. 
The  prominent  laws  of  consumption  are  becoming  more  evident, 
and  force  men  into  a  more  complete  harmony  with  their  new 
environment.  Our  appetites  must  in  time  feel  the  effects  of  this 
new  economic  environment,  and  be  gradually  reduced  until  the 
point  of  satiety  will  be  reached  as  soon  as  the  needs  of  the  sys- 
tem are  satisfied. 


II. 

THE   INFLUENCE   OF  THE    COST   OF  COMMODITIES  UPON  THEIR 
CONSUMPTION. 

In  the  preceding  section  I  have  dealt  solely  with  the  causes 
that  determine  the  amount  of  happiness  derived  from  the  con- 
sumption of  food.  It  would  seem  that  when  we  have  fij^ed  the 
intensity  of  our  desire  for  food  and  other  commodities,  the  laws 
of  the  consumption  of  wealth  would  also  be  determined.  What 
can  look  more  plausible  than  that  we  should  satisfy  our  most 
intense  desires  first  ?  And  if  we  do  this,  can  we  not  determine 
the  intensity  of  each  desire  from  the  order  in  which  we  demand 
commodities  for  consumption  ?  This  reasoning,  however,  con- 
tains a  serious  error,  since  from  the  whole  intensity  of  a  pleas- 
ure the  amount  of  pain  any  way  connected  with  it  must  be  de- 
ducted before  we  can  determine  its  relative  position  among  our 
pleasures.  The  desire  to  avoid  pain  influences  our  actions  as 
greatly  as  does  the  desire  to  obtain  happiness.  We  endeavor 
not  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness  regardless  of  pain, 


1 8  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

but  to  secure  the  greatest  balance  of  happiness  above  the  pain. 
This  distinction  is  of  the  greatest  importance  in  economic  af- 
fairs because  the  wealth  we  enjoy  is  not  the  free  gift  of  nature. 
We  get  what  we  consume  as  the  result  of  severe  toil,  and  the 
pains  incident  to  production  modify  our  demand  for  commodi- 
ties. 

To  illustrate  my  meaning,  let  us  picture  the  action  of  an  in- 
dividual at  a  free  dinner,  where  all  the  dainties  of  the  season 
were  at  his  disposal.  What  articles  of  food  would  he  choose 
first?  Evidently  those  which  gave  him  the  greatest  pleasure. 
When  his  desire  for  these  articles  was  satisfied,  or  when  the  de- 
gree of  their  utility  to  him  was  greatly  reduced,  he  would  con- 
sume other  articles  for  which  his  appetite  was  not  so  strong. 
The  final  degree  of  utility  of  any  article  would  rapidly  decline, 
and  hence  a  great  many  diflFerent  article  would  be  consumed. 

In  contrast  with  the  action  of  this  individual  at  a  free  dinner, 
let  us  picture  his  actions  at  an  ordinary  dinner  for  which  he 
must  pay.  He  will  now  consume  a  very  diflFerent  set  of  articles 
from  those  be  consumed  at  a  free  dinner.  The  knowledge  that 
a  given  article  of  which  he  is  very  fond  costs  twice  or  three 
times  as  much  as  some  other  article  for  which  his  desire  is 
much  less,  will  usually  cause  him  to  eat  the  latter  article,  even 
though  his  appetite  for  it  is  much  weaker.  Many  of  the  costly 
articles  of  which  he  partook  largely  at  the  free  dinner  will  not 
come  into  his  ordinary  dinner  at  all,  while  other  articles  will 
seldom  appear  on  his  table,  and  then  be  eaten  very  sparingly. 

From  these  illustrations  it  can  be  seen  that  there  are  two  dis- 
tinct orders  in  which  we  choose  commodities  for  consumption. 
One  of  these  we  may  term  the  natural  order,  as  it  is  the  order 
in  which  men  choose  commodities  for  consumption  when  influ- 
enced solely  by  those  ultimate  physiological  conditions  which 
make  the  consumption  of  some  commodities  more  pleasurable 
than  others.  The  second  we  may  term  the  economic  order,  be- 
cause this  is  the  order  in  which  men  choose  commodities  for 
consumption  when  their  natural  desire  for  an  article  is  modi- 
fied by  the  amount  of  labor  required  to  produce  it.  If  the 
labor  required  to  produce  an  article  were  always  in  proportion 
to  the  utility  derived  from  its  consumption,  these  two  orders 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  19 

would  be  identical.  It  is,  however,  seldom  true  that  the  con- 
sumption of  the  product  of  a  week's  work  in  the  production  of 
wheat  will  give  the  same  amount  of  pleasure  as  does  the  prod- 
uct of  a  week's  work  in  the  production  of  corn,  rice,  tobacco, 
cloth  or  cutlery.  Although  the  consumption  of  wheat  may 
give  a  more  intense  pleasure  to  a  man  than  that  of  rice,  he  will 
consume  rice  if  work  in  a  rice  field  is  so  much  more  productive 
than  work  in  a  wheat-field  that  the  pleasure  derived  from  the 
consumption  of  rice,  in  proportion  to  its  cost,  is  greater  than 
the  pleasure  derived  from  the  consumption  of  wheat  in  propor- 
tion to  its  cost.  Suppose  that  eight  units  of  pleasure  are  de- 
rived from  a  dinner  composed  of  wheat- bread,  and  that  six  units 
of  pain  are  required  for  its  production  ;  while  a  dinner  of  rice 
gave  four  units  of  pleasure  and  costs  but  two  units  of  pain.  In 
this  case  the  dinner  of  rice  would  be  chosen,  since  the  ratio  of 
the  pleasure  to  the  pain  would  be  greater  than  if  wheat  were 
consumed.  A  man  under  economic  conditions  will  first  choose 
that  article  which'has  the  highest  ratio  of  pleasure  to  pain,  and 
then  other  articles  will  be  chosen  in  that  order  which  allows  the 
highest  ratios  to  stand  first.  For  pleasure  we  can  substitute 
utility,  and  for  pain  the  cost  in  labor,  and  then  we  can  say  that 
men,  in  choosing  articles,  are  determined  by  the  ratio  of  their 
cost  to  their  utility. 

It  may  seem  a  little  abstract  to  think  of  estimating  the  ratio 
of  the  cost  of  commodities  to  their  utility  ;  yet,  in  a  concrete 
way,  it  is  what  every  family  does  continually.  Our  unit  of 
cost  is  the  dollar,  and  our  measure  of  utility  is  the  pleasure  we 
get  from  a  dollar's  worth  of  any  commodity.  A  dollar's  worth 
of  beef  is  compared  with  the  same  value  in  pork,  mutton,  cab- 
bage, or  potatoes.  We  do  not  simply  choose  the  article  we  like 
best  without  regard  to  the  quantity  which  a  dollar  will  buy. 
We  hesitate  in  purchasing  until  we  decide  whether  the  quantitj^ 
of  one  article  which  a  dollar  can  procure  will  give  us  a  more 
pleasant  dinner  than  a  dollar's  worth  of  some  other  article. 
The  dollar  and  the  pleasure  we  can  get  from  what  a  dollar  will 
purchase  of  the  various  articles  never  ceases  to  influence  us. 
Thus  we  continually  compare  the  cost  of  commodities  with  their 
utility;  even  though  no  use  is  made  of  so  abstract  a  formula. 


20  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

The  reduction  in  the  cost  of  sugar  deserves  especial  atten- 
tion, because  the  change  in  its  value  has  been  so  recent  that 
the  great  economic  effects  of  the  change  are  just  beginning  to 
reveal  themselves.  In  the  past,  sugar  has  been  so  costly  that 
it  has  always  been  ranked  among  the  luxuries,  and  from  force 
of  habit  it  is  still  so  regarded  by  most  persons.  Its  price  is  now 
so  reduced  that  the  cost  of  a  pound  of  sugar  is  but  little  more 
than  that  of  a  pound  of  flour,  and  there  are  good  reasons  to 
suppose  that  its  price  will  soon  be  reduced  below  that  of  flour. 
The  effects  of  this  change  must  in  time  revolutionize  our  pres- 
ent diet.  Most  of  our  fruits  and  many  of  our  vegetables  become 
palatable  only  through  a  free  use  of  sugar,  and  it  is  of  as  much 
importance  to  the  utilization  of  these  fruits  and  vegetables  as 
salt  and  ice  are  to  the  preservation  of  meat.  When  present 
prejudices  and  habits  which  limit  the  use  of  sugar  give  way, 
and  the  tax  is  removed,  the  increase  in  the  use  of  our  fruits  and 
vegetables  must  be  as  great  as  that  which  the  use  of  salt  and 
ice  has  caused  in  the  case  of  meat. 

The  rapid  increase  in  the  use  of  sugar  is  now  worthy  of  espe- 
cial attention,  because  of  its  connection  with  the  temperance 
movement.  In  past  times  the  diet  of  the  ordinary  laborer  was 
made  palatable  only  through  the  free  use  of  liquor.  It  was 
the  pleasure-giving  portion  of  the  meal,  the  other  coarse  and 
usually  ill-prepared  articles  being  washed  down  by  its  use.  As 
no  other  highly  pleasurable  diet  was  within  the  laborer's 
means,  the  use  of  liquor  could  not  be  greatly  reduced  without 
making  his  diet  unendurable.  Now,  however,  all  this  is 
changed.  The  low  price  of  sugar  places  a  satisfying  diet 
within  the  means  of  every  one,  and  it  is  now  much  easier  than 
formerly  to  persuade  people  to  forego  the  use  of  liquor,  when 
an  equally  pleasurable  diet  can  be  obtained  from  other  sources. 
The  temperance  people  as  a  class  live  on  a  sugar  diet,  sugar 
being  that  part  of  their  diet  from  which  they  derive  the  greater 
part  of  their  pleasure.  As  consumers,  they  form  a  distinct  class, 
and  have  an  order  of  consumption  radically  different  from  their 
liquor-loving  neighbors.  With  every  reduction  in  the  price  of 
sugar,  they  gain  an  increasing  advantage  in  the  struggle  for 
life  over  the  drinking  class,  and  the  day  does  not  seem  far  dis- 


The  Consumption  of   Wealth.  21 

tant  when  the  cheapness  of  their  diet  will  give  them  an  indus- 
trial supremacy  in  the  greater  part  of  the  field  of  employment. 

I  do  not,  however,  wish  to  assert  that  all  the  eflFects  of  the 
increased  use  of  sugar  are  advantageous  to  the  consumer.  A 
greater  consumption  of  sugar  is  a  good  in  the  sense  that  it  will 
prove  beneficial  to  the  race,  even  though  it  may  injure  man}' 
individuals.  Improved  consumption  has  its  evils  no  less  than 
improved  production.  The  strong  appetite  for  sweets  which 
many  persons  have,  doubtless  injures  their  health.  The  ten- 
dency of  cheap  sugar  will  be  to  weaken  and  then  to  destroy 
these  persons,  thus  leaving  the  world  to  those  who  have  less 
desire  for  sugar.  Sugar  may  in  time  prove  so  injurious  that  the 
moral  reaction  against  it  will  be  as  strong  as  it  now  is  against 
liquor  and  tobacco  ;  yet  this  fact  would  prove  still  more  clearly 
the  great  change  in  the  appetites  of  men  which  the  free  use  of 
sugar  for  a  long  time  had  made.  The  long-continued  use  of 
liquor  has  changed  the  appetites  of  its  users  ;  should  men  en- 
tirely cease  to  drink  liquor,  the  modification  in  the  appetite 
which  it  has  caused  will  be  permanent,  and  as  a  whole  they 
will  be  better  off"  for  what  the  race  has  gone  through,  even 
though  it  has  destroyed  so  many  individuals.  When  the  re- 
duction in  the  price  of  sugar  has  had  its  full  effect  upon  the 
race,  another  great  change  in  appetite  will  be  caused.  All  men 
will  be  better  consumers,  because  their  weaker  appetites  will 
compel  them  to  resort  to  a  greater  variety  of  food  to  supply  the 
demands  of  their  systems.  Many  articles  which  we  now  eat 
only  when  they  are  sweetened,  will  not  go  out  of  use  when  the 
craving  for  sugar  is  reduced.  We  shall  gradually  learn  to 
enjoy  them  for  their  own  taste,  and  thus  make  them  a  part  of 
the  standard  of  life. 

Our  present  appetite  for  sugar  may  be  compared  with  that  of 
the  Esquimaux  for  fat.  They  drink  oil  with  t"he  relish  that  we 
eat  candy.  Their  love  for  fat,  however,  is  no  wonder  when  we 
recollect  the  nature  of  the  climate  and  the  limitation  of  their 
food  supply.  Nature  must  give  them  a  keen  appetite  for  an 
article  to  which  their  diet  is  limited  and  for  which  they  have  a 
great  need.  Change  the  environment  and  give  them  a  greater 
variety  of  food,  and  they  will  lose  their  love  for  fats  and  oils. 


22  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

This  appetite  for  fat  is  a  characteristic  of  primitive  men. 
Only  a  few  centuries  ago  fat  meat  had  a  higher  price  than  the 
lean.  The  change  from  fat  to  butter,  and  from  molasses  to 
granulated  sugar,  shows  the  growing  delicacy  of  the  taste  of 
modern  men.  Just  as  a  new  environment  with  a  more  varied 
supply  of  food  has  changed  the  love  for  fat  into  a  feeling  of 
disgust,  so  is  the  craving  for  liquor  and  tobacco  changing  to  a 
feeling  of  aversion,  and  in  the  future  the  desire  for  sugar  and 
other  strong  appetites  may  go  the  same  way. 

It  must,  however,  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  relative  cost  of 
different  articles,  as  indicated  by  their  market-price,  does  not 
by  itself  furnish  sufficient  grounds  for  correctly  estimating  the 
relation  of  cost  to  utility.  The  utility  of  the  various  articles 
desired  often  changes  from  causes  which  do  not  affect  their 
value.  To  those  who  think  only  of  their  immediate  wants, 
cheap  and  shoddy  articles  have  a  much  greater  utility  than 
they  have  to  those  having  high  regard  for  their  future  welfare. 
The  choice  between  substantial  articles  of  apparel  or  of  house- 
hold furniture,  and  their  cheap  imitations,  which  can  only 
supply  present  needs,  is  largely  determined  by  the  estimate 
which  the  consumer  has  of  his  future  needs ;  and  as  his  regard 
for  the  future  increases,  the  utility  of  substantial  articles  will 
also  increase,  even  though  there  is  no  change  in  their  market 
value.  The  utility  of  any  article  of  food  also  largely  depends 
upon  the  ability  of  housekeepers  to  cook  it  properly.  The 
great  consumption  of  meat  and  wheat-bread  among  Americans 
is  largely  due  to  the  ignorance  of  their  cooks,  who  do  not 
usually  possess  sufficient  skill  to  make  ordinary  vegetables  pal- 
atable. The  influence  of  good  cooking  is  readily  seen  in  the 
change  which  naturally  takes  place  in  the  diet  of  an  American 
when  he  goes  to  France  or  Germany,  Those  who  at  home 
rarely  eat  any  vegetable  other  than  potatoes  will,  in  France  or 
Germany,  freely  consume  all  kinds  of  vegetables,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  cooking  is  so  superior  that  a  taste  is  soon 
acquired  for  many  dishes  against  which  the  poor  cooking  of 
his  own  country  had  given  him  a  prejudice. 

In  the  future  the  real  luxuries  of  the  diet  will  depend  upon 
the  skill  in  cooking  more  than  upon  the  possession  of  some  rare 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  23 

article.  Nature  seldom  furnishes  a  simple  dish  which  has  all 
the  qualities  needed  to  excite  a  delicate  taste.  We  must  learn 
how  to  manufacture  agreeable  dishes  out  of  cheap  foods  just  as 
we  have  learned  to  make  the  finest  goods  out  of  the  cheapest 
raw  material.  Skilled  labor  can  increase  the  utility  of  food  as 
much  as  it  can  that  of  wool  or  iron.  With  every  advance  in 
the  art  of  cooking,  a  greater  use  of  cheaper  food  can  be  made. 
Just  as  our  efficient  employers  utilize  our  cheap  laborers,  so  will 
efficient  cooks  utilize,  in  the  future,  our  cheap  foods.  The 
simple  dishes  of  our  forefathers  will  be  displaced  by  more  com- 
posite ones  having  the  same  elements  combined  in  a  more  har- 
moniuos  manner.  In  the  same  way  that  butter  is  now  made 
from  cheap  materials,  or  olive  oil  from  cotton  seeds,  other  costly 
articles  can  be  imitated  which  will  combine  the  substances 
needed  by  our  system  in  a  more  scientific  way. 

There  is  a  prejudice  against  cheap  foods  because  they  are  as- 
sociated in  our  minds  with  undiversified  living  of  a  plaiti  char- 
acter. We  think  of  the  New  Englander  making  a  frugal  meal 
from  corn-bread,  the  Irishman  longing  for  his  potatoes,  or  the 
Chinese  satisfied  with  his  rice.  It  is,  however,  overlooked  that 
a  diet  mainly  of  corn,  potatoes  or  rice,  is  only  possible  for  a 
people  who  have  strong  appetites.  When  their  appetites  are 
reduced  through  the  effects  of  a  better  use  of  the  food  supply, 
the  one  article  of  their  former  diet  becomes  distasteful  to  them 
before  they  have  eaten  enough  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  their 
system.  They  are  now  compelled  to  make  use  of  variety  in 
their  diet,  and  use  more  skill  in  cooking.  Variety  in  food  and 
improved  cooking  are  the  only  compensations  which  men  can 
find  for  the  reduction  in  the  strength  of  their  appetites.  Men, 
however,  resort  to  them  in  vain  to  increase  the  pleasure  de- 
rived from  food,  since  every  increase  in  their  use  only  results 
in  a  further  reduction  of  the  appetite.  When  these  causes  are 
once  put  in  operation,  their  is  no  limit  to  their  action  until 
cooking  becomes  a  science,  and  the  best  use  is  made  of  all  the 
land. 


24  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 


III. 

THE  CAUSES   OBSCURING  THE   PRIMARY   LAWS   OF 
CONSUMPTION. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  effect  of  regular  and  varied  diet, 
and  other  causes  which  lessen  the  need  of  food,  tend  to  reduce 
the  appetite  for  food,  and  lead  to  the  evolution  of  a  man  of 
weaker  appetites  and  passions.  If  the  point  of  satiety  adjusts 
itself  to  the  needs  of  the  system,  it  must  be  reached  more 
quicklj'  by  men  who  have  the  smaller  need  for  food.  Yet  the 
results  of  past  experience  do  not  seem  to  support  this  doctrine  ; 
the  strong  races  who  have  vigorous  appetites  have  been  suc- 
cessful in  displacing  their  weaker  neighbors  who  demand  less 
food.  And  among  the  individuals  of  the  more  advanced 
nations,  the  men  with  keen  appetites  and  powerful  passions 
have  usuallj'  been  those  who  were  leaders  in  progress  as  well 
in  intellectual  as  in  muscular  occupations.  These  and  similar 
facts  have  to  be  faced.  •  They  cannot  be  denied,  yet,  perhaps, 
they  can  be  explained.  To  show  why  progress  has  been  ac- 
complished in  apparent  opposition  to  the  primary  laws  of  con- 
sumption, it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  primitive  times.  Only 
by  studying  the  condition  and  environment  of  our  distant  an- 
cestors, can  we  get  the  facts  which  explain  the  apparent  para- 
dox. The  primitive  man  was  indolent,  and  would  not  work 
unless  forced  to  action  by  urgent  present  needs.  Under  such 
conditions,  those  nations  who  had  the  strongest  appetites  were 
most  likely  to  work  ;  they  would  be  more  willing  to  submit  to 
the  conditions  of  regular  industry,  and  the  desire  to  accumulate 
capital  would  develop  earlier  among  them  than  among  the  less 
vigorous  nations.  These  advantages  are  so  great  that  nations 
possessing  them  have  not  much  difficulty  in  driving  out  other 
nations  who  lack  the  essential  qualities  for  a  higher  civilization. 

So  long  as  the  more  vigorous  people  of  a  nation  obtain  an 
advantage  by  more  work,  there  is  a  tendency  for  a  progress  in 
civilization  to  be  accompanied  by  a  survival  of  that  portion  of 
the  people  who  have  the  strongest  appetites.  The  men  whose 
simple  wants  can  be  supplied  by  a  few  hours  work,  each  week. 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth,  25 

must  give  way  to  those  wjiose  desires  are  so  much  stronger  that 
they  are  willing  to  work  many  hours  each  day  to  gratify  their 
appetites.  The  first  problem  in  primitive  times  was  to  create 
wants  in  men  strong  enough  to  induce  them  to  work.  For  this 
reason,  the  appetite  for  liquor  and  tobacco  was  often  beneficial 
in  past  times.  The  desire  for  such  articles  is  so  intense  that 
the  user  was  forced  into  regular  habits  of  work  to  secure  the 
means  by  which  this  appetite  could  be  satisfied.  Vigorous  ap- 
petites, and  even  abnormal  cravings  for  stimulants  are  thus  of 
use  to  a  progressive  civilization,  so  long  as  the  people  are  ac- 
quiring habits  of  industry.  They  cease  to  be  an  element  in 
progress  as  soon  as  a  further  increase  of  the  hours  of  daily  labor 
cannot  add  to  the  productive  power  of  the  nation. 

Among  the  higher  races,  the  average  man  is  not  lazy  or  in- 
dolent. His  productive  power  would  be  greater  if  he  would 
work  fewer  hours.  Certainly  no  one  can  claim  that  a  street-car 
conductor  who  works  fifteen  hours  a  day  through  all  the  year, 
can  be  made  a  better  man  by  a  further  increase  of  his  appetites. 
The  present  strength  of  his  appetites  is  forcing  him  to  earn  his 
living  in  a  way  which  must  injure  him.  Is  it  probable  that 
his  children  will  have  any  advantage  in  the  struggle  for  life  by 
which  they  can  excel  the  children  of  his  neighbor,  who  refuses 
to  work  so  long  each  day  ?  Can  he,  by  creating  in  himself  a 
craving  for  liquor  and  tobacco,  add  more  hours  to  his  daily 
labor  in  a  way  that  he  can  benefit  himself  and  the  nation.  It 
is  no  longer  with  the  civilized  man  a  problem  of  labor  or  idle- 
ness ;  the  trouble  is  that  he  is  so  willing  to  work  that  he  injures 
himself.  He  thus  weakens  his  children,  and  makes  them  less 
fitted  to  survive. 

The  vital  question  of  to-day  is  to  decide  what  can  be  con- 
sumed so  as  to  give  the  greatest  sum  of  happiness  for  an 
honest  day's  work.  When  a  choice  must  be  made  between 
diflferent  pleasures,  strong  appetites  are  no  advantage.  Those 
who  possess  them  no  longer  have  an  advantage  over  those  who 
have  weaker  appetites  and  thus  make  a  better  use  of  the  food 
supply. 

Another  prominent  cause  which  obscures  the  operation  of  the 
laws  of  consumption,  is  the  large  amount  of  migration  both 


26  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

from  the  lower  to  the  higher  nations,. and  from  the  older  to  the 
newer  countries.  The  immigrant  to  the  newer  countries  is  of 
that  class  who  have  the  strongest  appetites.  Men  are  not  at- 
tracted to  America  because  they  can  have  more  music  or  art  to 
enjoy,  or  for  any  similar  motive.  They  come  to  get  more  to 
eat  and  to  drink,  or  for  other  material  ends.  We  thus  have 
added  to  our  population  a  powerful  element  which  directs  pro- 
duction and  consumption  along  other  channels  than  it  would 
have  gone,  had  no  foreign  element  been  introduced.  The  ten- 
dencies of  American  civilization  are  covered  up  by  the  presence 
of  those  who  have  not  been  influenced  by  the  American  envi- 
ronment. We  apparently  have  stronger  appetites  than  for- 
merly, merely  because  an  average  is  struck  between  those  who 
eat  and  drink  less,  and  others  who  subordinate  everything  to 
the  cravings  of  their  appetites.  In  spite  of  the  rapidly  grow- 
ing class  who  do  not  use  liquor  or  tobacco,  larger  quantities  of 
these  articles  are  used  than  before. 

The  constant  migration  from  the  country  to  the  city,  helps 
also  to  conceal  the  effect  which  their  environment  has  upon  city 
people.  They  do  less  work,  and  rely  more  upon  fuel  and  cloth- 
ing for  protection,  than  do  those  who  live  upon  farms.  The 
constant  influx  of  country  people  hides  the  evidence  of  that 
reduction  of  appetite  which  naturally  follows  from  the  great 
change  in  environment.  In  this  case,  a  false  conclusion  is 
again  drawn,  by  averaging  the  new  elements  of  the  population 
with  those  families  who  for  many  generations  have  been  subject 
to  the  influence  of  city  life. 

The  present  system  of  taxation  is  also  a  leading  cause  pre- 
venting a  clear  perception  of  the  strong  tendencies  now  at  work 
forcing  men  to  modify  their  appetites  and  change  the  form  of 
their  consumption.  There  is  so  strong  a  dislike  of  taxation 
that  every  possible  means  is  resorted  to,  through  which  the 
burden  of  taxation  can  be  transferred  to  some  other  class,  or  at 
least,  hidden  from  view.  The  problem  statesmen  have  to  solve, 
is  not  that  of  burdening  the  public  as  little  as  possible,  but  of 
laying  taxes  where  they  will  be  least  seen  and  felt.  As  a  re- 
sult, those  articles  which  have  been  the  most  reduced  in  price, 
are  made  to  bear  the  greatest  amount  of  taxation.     This  is  es- 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  27 

pecially  true  of  sugar,  tobacco,  and  liquor,  which  are  regarded 
as  luxuries  by  the  public.  While  this  mode  of  taxation  has 
some  temporary  advantage,  yet  it  is  the  cause  of  great  ultimate 
evils.  If  all  articles  were  taxed  by  the  Government  to  an 
amount  equal  to  the  reduction  in  their  cost,  there  would  be 
no  change  in  the  relative  cost  of  commodities,  and  no  modifi- 
cation in  the  order  of  their  consumption.  Society  would  re- 
main stationery  and  lose  all  the  advantages  coming  from  the 
reduction  of  old  appetites  and  the  growth  of  new  pleasures. 
Doubtless  some  new  evils  to  individuals  are  avoided  in  this 
way,  but  the  public,  as  a  whole,  pays  too  high  a  price  for  this 
exemption,  when  it  is  accomplished  by  checking  the  orderly 
growth  of  society. 

In  the  case  of  sugar,  a  wholesome  article  is  kept  out  of  gen- 
eral use,  and  many  other  articles  which  need  sugar  to  make 
their  taste  agreeable,  cannot  become  a  part  of  the  daily  diet  of 
the  people.  Men  are  thus  kept  from  that  gradual  modification 
in  the  variety  of  their  diet  which  reduces  the  appetite,  and 
allows  a  better  use  of  the  land.  By  taking  the  tax  from  sugar, 
the  resulting  increase  in  the  productive  power  would  give  to  the 
next  generation  so  much  more  income  that  ten  times  the  present 
taxation  could  be  levied  with  no  increase  of  the  burden. 

Even  with  liquor  and  tobacco,  where  the  evils  of  their  in- 
creased use  are  most  apparent,  the  public  suffers  a  great  loss 
from  futile  efforts  to  check  their  consumption,  through  an  in- 
crease of  their  cost.  The  craving  for  them  is  so  strong  that 
there  is  no  hope  of  limiting  their  use  except  by  such  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  income  of  the  consumers  that  they  cannot  buy  as 
much  as  they  desire.  And  even  if  the  policy  could  succeed, 
it  would  prevent  that  development  in  men  which  can  only 
come  through  the  reduction  of  the  appetite.  The  source  of  the 
evil  lies  in  having  strong  appetites  and  not  in  gratifying  them. 
As  long  as  the  desire  is  so  strong  it  will  be  gratified  at  the  ex- 
pense of  all  other  desires.  Cheaper  liquor  and  tobacco  would 
not  increase  the  evils  which  society  suffers  from  them.  Put  a 
man  under  conditions  where  he  can  get  but  half  the  liquor  he 
wants,  and  he  and  his  family  will  drag  out  a  miserable  exist- 
ence ;  let  him  have  all  he  can  drink,  and  if  he  would  live  he 


28  The  Consiimption  of  Wealth. 

will  be  forced  to  reform.  Hard  drinking  is  one  road  to  no 
drinking,  because  the  full  satisfaction  which  follows,  weakens 
the  appetite  and  strengthens  the  moral  reaction  against  the 
habit. 

Society,  therefore,  has  nothing  to  gain  from  an  artificial  in- 
crease in  the  cost  of  liquor  and  tobacco.  The  nation  will  not 
be  in  a  sound  condition  until  the  appetites  of  men  are  so  re- 
duced that  they  will  have  no  desire  for  such  coarse  pleasures. 
High  taxes  may  retard  the  self-destruction  of  individuals,  but 
they  cannot  lessen  the  number  of  the  victims  of  these  habits. 
They  become,  moreover,  a  source  of  great  evil  by  obscuring 
the  primary  laws  of  consumption,  and  thus  keeping  the  public 
from  seeing  the  only  solution  of  this  problem. 

The  fourth  great  cause  which  keeps  the  appetites  of  men  so 
strong  in  spite  of  the  efifects  of  the  primary  laws  of  consump- 
tion, is  to  be  sought  in  the  extended  use  of  cheap  labor  by 
which  modern  productive  processes  are  accompanied.  The 
introduction  of  machinery,  and  of  production  on  a  large  scale, 
enables  employers  to  make  use  of  a  much  lower  class  of 
labor  than  they  formerly  could.  With  each  extension  of  the 
division  of  labor  to  some  new  department,  many  of  the  higher 
class  of  laborers  must  give  up  their  places  to  those  of  a  much 
lower  class.  The  constant  increase  of  the  lowest  class  of 
laborers  in  all  our  industries  shows  how  strong  are  the  influ- 
ences which  compel  the  employer  to  reach  continually  for  a 
still  lower  class  of  laborers.  These  lower  classes  of  laborers, 
however,  are  nearer  the  condition  of  primitive  men,  and  have 
stronger  appetites  and  passions  than  those  classes  have  that 
they  have  displaced. 

For  these  reasons,  the  results  of  improved  production  seem  to 
strengthen  the  position  of  those  economists  who  claim  that  the 
appetites  of  men  increase  with  the  advance  of  civilization. 
Yet  all  the  facts  upon  which  this  opinion  is  based  may  be  ad- 
mitted without  modifying  any  of  those  ultimate  laws  of  con- 
sumption which  have  been  presented.  The  effects  of  a  better 
consumption  cannot  become  prominent  until  the  changes  which 
society  must  expect  from  strong  appetites  have  been  com- 
pleted.    The  good  effect  of  strong  appetites  upon  men  in  the 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  29 

earlier  stages  of  their  development,  cannot  receive  too  much 
emphasis.  They  must  first  learn  to  work  regularly,  and  to  save 
and  economize  their  resources.  And  for  this  purpose  there  is 
no  means  so  efficient  as  to  have  such  strong  appetites  that  their 
wants  will  vastly  exceed  the  quantity  of  commodities  which 
their  labor  can  supply.  Men  must  feel  keenly  the  pressure  of 
unsatisfied  wants  before  they  will  work  regularly  at  home, 
or  seek  to  better  their  fortunes  in  other  lands.  Strong  ap- 
petites force  men  into  occupations  and  localities  where  their 
dread  of  work  is  surpassed  by  the  pleasure  derived  from  what 
they  produce  themselves.  They  thus  cease  to  depend  solely 
upon  the  bounties  of  nature,  and  gradually  discover  that  reg- 
ular production  furnishes  to  them  the  least  objectionable  way 
of  supplying  their  wants. 

As  their  mental  habits  and  muscular  powers  are  gradually 
modified  to  meet  these  new  conditions,  a  larger  number  of  ob- 
jects have  to  them  so  low  a  cost  of  production  that  the  pains 
of  production  are  less  than  the  pleasure  of  consumption.  They 
are  thus  induced  to  increase  their  hours  of  labor  until  they 
reach  the  time-limit  of  highest  efficiency  of  labor.  Further  ad- 
ditions to  the  hours  of  labor  will  be  a  damage  to  society,  and 
those  persons  will  suffer  the  most  from  over-work  whose  appe- 
tites are  the  strongest. 

When  the  time-limit  of  highest  efficiency  of  labor  is  reached, 
society  enters  upon  a  new  epoch  in  its  development.  Strong 
appetites  cease  to  be  an  element  of  strength,  and  become  a 
source  of  weakness.  At  this  point,  the  primary  laws  of  con- 
sumption become  the  controlling  forces  in  further  progress, 
while  the  disturbing  causes  sink  to  their  true  position. 

In  American  civilization,  at  least,  it  looks  as  though  the  time- 
limit  of  highest  efficiency  of  labor  has  been  passed  by  a  large 
class  of  its  inhabitants,  while  another  large  class  still  needs  the 
goading  impulses  to  action  which  strong  appetites  alone  can 
give.  There  is  thus  a  conflict  between  the  interests  of  the  two 
classes  ;  the  one  class  is  trying  to  use  America  merely  as  a 
means  of  gratifying  the  craving  of  their  intense  desires  for 
food  and  drink,  while  the  other  class  seeks  to  restrain  their 
appetites,  and  force  production  into  channels  through  which  a 


30  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

greater  variety  of  growing  desires  can  be  gratified.  This  con- 
flict lies  in  the  nature  of  the  transitory  state  through  which  we 
are  now  passing  ;  and  when  it  is  ended  we  shall  have  clear  evi- 
dence as  to  what  is  the  ultimate  time-limit  of  eflficient  labor. 
Should  it  be  proved  that  additional  hours  of  labor  cannot  in- 
crease the  gross  produce  without  injuring  the  laborer,  it  will  at 
the  same  time  be  shown  that  those  persons  who  have  an  intense 
desire  for  a  few  articles,  no  longer  have  an  advantage  over  those 
whose  weaker  appetites  force  them  to  resort  to  a  greater  variety 
in  consumption.       • 

It  may  be  a  question  whether  we  have  yet  reached  the  time- 
limit  of  efficiency,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  such 
a  limit,  which  must  be  soon  reached,  in  the  progress  of  our 
race.  When  it  is  passed,  the  ultimate  laws  of  consumption  will 
be  as  clearly  seen  in  their  eflfect  upon  society,  as  the  laws  of 
production  are  at  present.  Inductive  evidence  will  then  be 
added  to  the  deductive  proof  we  now  have,  and  every  one  will 
see  that  the  laws  of  consumption  are  as  worthy  a  study  as  the 
laws  of  production  or  distribution. 


IV. 

THE  GROWTH   OF  NEW   PLEASURES. 

It  is  the  first  principle  of  all  choice  in  consumption  that  we 
seek  to  gratify  our  most  intense  desires  first.  The  „action  of 
this  principle,  if  it  were  not  aided  by  secondary  causes,  would 
not  encourage  the  growth  of  new  pleasures  until  the  strength 
of  our  appetites  was  so  reduced  that  more  pleasure  would  be 
obtained  in  other  ways.  The  higher  sources  of  pleasure  exist 
in  the  primitive  man  merely  in  a  rudimentary  state.  The  ap- 
petites of  man  would  therefore  have  to  be  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum before  other  pleasures  could  secure  the  needed  conditions 
for  their  growth.  We  are  yet  too  far  from  such  a  minimum  to 
assume  that  the  growth  of  new  pleasures  has  been  solely  due 
to  the  changes  in  our  appetites.  Even  at  an  early  date  some  of 
the  higher  pleasures  become  important  factors  in  human  wel- 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  31 

fare.  The  peculiar  conditions  of  various  civilizations  have 
furnished  the  means  by  which  single  pleasures  developed  an 
intensity  that  greatly  exceeded  that  of  the  primitive  desires. 
What  these  conditions  are  which  hasten  the  growth  of  higher 
pleasures,  must  be  discovered  before  the  causes  of  past  progress 
can  be  explained. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  of  these  conditions  lies  in  the 
irregularity  of  the  food  supply  to  primitive  men.  The  disas- 
trous effects  of  famine,  through  which  they  must  frequently 
pass  is  not  entirely  forgotten  during  the  seasons  of  plenty.  The 
memory  of  past  suffering  creates  a  desire  to  provide  for  future 
welfare.  The  intensity  of  the  desire  for  food  thus  becomes  the 
source  from  which  a  new  pleasure  arises.  This  new  pleasure 
of  having  the  future  provided  for,  gradually  grows  until  it  is 
strong  enough  to  check  the  wasteful  use  of  present  resources. 
It  then  becomes  so  powerful  that  the  pleasures  of  indolence 
and  idleness  are  displaced  by  active  habits,  reducing  the  dread 
of  regular  work.  With  the  growth  of  new  habits,  a  longer 
period  of  abstinence  will  offer  fewer  obstacles,  and  the  pain  of 
regular  labor  becomes  reduced.  Should  the  difficulties  at  the 
start  be  very  great,  as  they  are  likely  to  be  in  a  tropical  country, 
but  little  progress  can  be  made  ;  only  in  colder  regions  where 
nature  is  less  powerful,  can  all  the  variety  of  natural  conditions 
be  found  through  whose  utilization  a  gradual  progress  can  be 
made  from  the  shortest  to  the  longest  periods  of  deferred  con- 
sumption. 

The  growth  of  esthetic  feeling  during  the  earlier  stage  of 
civilization  while  the  appetites  are  yet  strong,  also  needs  the 
favoring  influence  of  peculiar  economic  conditions.  The  initial 
stages  in  the  development  of  a  new  faculty  must  be  made  easj'- 
by  a  graded  series  of  steps,  along  which  a  people  can  be  carried 
without  great  efforts  on  their  part.  During  the  first  stage  in 
the  development  of  a  new  series,  the  environment  of  the  people 
must  in  some  form  furnish  the  desired  objects  free  of  cost,  or  so 
nearly  so,  that  the  needed  effort  does  not  seriously  diminish  the 
power  of  the  individual  to  secure  the  means  of  subsistence. 
This  result  can  be  secured  in  various  ways.  It  is  not  at  all 
necessary  that  the  articles  should  have  a  small  cost  of  produc- 


32  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

tion,  if  the  consumer  is  in  any  way  deceived  so  that  he  is  not 
conscious  that  he  is  making  a  choice  between  these  articles  and 
food  for  which  his  desire  is  so  much  greater.  Religion,  national 
feeling,  and  other  powerful  motives  which  do  not  have  economic 
causes,  often  come  in  to  distract  the  attention  from  economic 
considerations ;  and  thus  secure  the  appropriations  of  large 
sums  of  wealth  for  higher  purposes  which  would  have  been 
expended  for  food  or  shelter,  if  each  individual  had  consciously 
chosen  between  the  two  classes  of  objects.  The  peculiar  tribal 
relations  of  the  early  races  for  this  reason  were  very  conducive 
to  the  growth  of  new  pleasures.  Each  person  was  not  an  in- 
dividual, making  choices  for  himself  alone  ;  he  was  so  bound 
up  in  his  tribal  relations  that  he  did  not  distinctly  feel  the 
burden  which  the  new  pleasure  imposed  upon  him.  The 
egoism  of  each  person  was  thus  prevented  from  exerting  that 
influence  which  it  would  have  done,  had  the  social  relations 
been  upon  an  individual  basis.  The  larger  groups  of  partici- 
pants in  common  pleasures,  which  the  tribal  relations  permit, 
also  allow  many  new  gratifications  which  would  be  too  costly 
for  the  family  or  the  individual  of  to-day. 

The  unequal  distribution  of  wealth  which  shows  itself  so 
early  in  the  progress  from  barbarism,  operates  in  the  same  man- 
ner. The  favored  classes  can  satisfy  to  the  fullest  extent  their 
appetites  and  passions  without  exhausting  their  revenues. 
They  are  thus  induced  to  seek  new  pleasures  which  cannot  be 
gratified  by  other  persons.  This  caste-making  spirit  is  of  great 
\;  utility  to  primitive  races.  To  the  pleasure  of  consuming  an 
article  is  added  another  pleasure,  arising  from  the  social  posi- 
tion which  the  possession  of  this  article  gives  to  its  owner. 
This  second  pleasure  has  much  greater  force  than  the  first,  and 
acts  as  a  powerful  check  upon  the  primitive  appetites.  Without 
this  exclusive  spirit,  the  growth  of  higher  pleasures  would 
have  been  greatly  retarded.  Music  and  literature  could  not 
have  their  present  influence  with  men,  but  for  the  patronage  of 
wealthy  families  seeking  some  exclusive  mark  by  which  they 
could  be  distinguished  from  the  common  people. 

Among  primitive  peoples,  new  desires  had  for  these  reasons 
many  powerful  influences  which  aided  their  growth  ;  yet  it  is 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  33 

misleading  to  view  these  causes  as  the  primary  ones,  and  over- 
look the  peculiarities  of  the  environment,  through  which  some 
pleasures  have  so  small  a  cost  that  they  can  be  enjoyed  without 
a  large  reduction  of  the  food  supply.  The  climate  is  the  de- 
termining cause  which  decides  whether,  or  not,  outdoor  sports 
can  become  popular.  Had  Greece  had  a  variable  continental 
climate  with  sudden  violent  changes  of  the  weather  she  would 
not  have  perfected  those  athletic  sports  and  games  which  formed 
so  prominent  a  part  in  her  development.  Had  Athens  also  a 
location  like  St.  Petersburg,  the  climate  would  have  destroyed 
her  statues  so  quickly  that  it  is  not  likely  that  the  artists  would 
have  been  encouraged  to  make  them.  Music  is  not  an  early 
period  cheap  enough  to  become  popular  unless  the  climate  is  of 
such  a  character  that  the  voice  is  clear  and  pure.  "With  a  free 
instrument  of  so  much  value  the  basis  is  secured  upon  which 
the  future  progress  of  the  favored  nations  rests. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  for  the  development  of  a  new 
pleasure,  that  it  should  be  free  at  the  start.  Its  full  develop- 
ment may  be  prevented  if  the  necessary  conditions  for  its 
growth  are  very  costly.  The  cost  can  gradually  be  increased 
as  the  strength  of  the  desire  grows ;  yet  should  the  cost  increase 
more  rapidly  than  the  pleasure  develops,  the  condition  of  future 
progress  is  taken  away.  The  climate  of  Greece  and  Rome 
allowed  theatrical  entertainments  to  be  in  Ihe  open  air,  and  the 
strong  imaginations  of  the  people  gave  a  realistic  character  to 
their  simple  plays,  which  at  the  present  time  can  be  secured 
only  by  costly  costumes  and  apparatus.  It  is  hard  to  see  how 
the  opera  and  the  drama  could  have  reached  their  present  de- 
velopment without  those  favorable  conditions  attending  their 
development  by  which  they  were  so  nearly  free  at  first,  and 
during  the  subsequent  stages  of  progress,  their  cost  increased 
more  slowly  than  the  intensity  of  the  pleasure  they  give.  Of 
late,  however,  it  would  seem  that  the  cost  is  increasing  too 
rapidly  since  their  higher  forms  attract  an  audience  only  where 
they  are  assisted  by  public  or  private  enterprise. 

If  we  look  to  American  conditions,  the  causes  will  be  found 
at  work  favoring  the  development  of  pleasures,  which  to  us  are 
cheap  or  free,  and  retarding  the  growth  of  other  pleasures  not 


34  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

favored  by  our  present  environment.  Art  and  taste  have  now 
peculiar  advantages  which  they  have  seldom  or  never  before 
enjoyed.  The  processes  of  invention  have  cheapened  the  pro- 
cess of  reproducing  pictures  and  brought  the  beautiful  within 
the  reach  of  all.  So  cheap  are  many  kinds  of  pictures  that 
they  are  largely  distributed  as  means  of  advertisements.  Every- 
where the  homes  of  the  poorest  people  are  full  of  beautiful 
objects,  many  of  which  have  no  cost ;  and  when  their  taste  is 
improved  by  contact  with  these  objects,  others  more  suited  to 
their  new  condition  can  be  obtained  at  a  slight  increase  of  cost. 

The  improvements  in  machinery  have  also  caused  the  factory- 
made  cloth  to  displace  the  unattractive  homespun  cloth.  From 
the  many  varieties  of  color  and  figure,  each  person  can  choose 
the  article  which  is  most  becoming  without  any  increase  in 
cost.  The  conditions  are  thus  secured,  under  which  the  taste 
can  develop,  and  it  will  soon  become  strong  enough  to  create  a 
large  demand  for  the  best  products  of  the  art. 

The  development  of  a  greater  love  for  music  will,  I  fear, 
meet  serious  obstacles.  Climatic  conditions  in  America  do  not 
seem  favorable  to  the  best  use  of  the  voice.  The  kinds  of 
musical  instruments  which  could  educate  the  public  taste  are 
costly,  and  require  from  the  player  a  vast  outlay  of  time  and 
labor  before  they  can  be  skilfully  used.  The  conditions  under 
which  concerts  and*  operas  are  given  make  them  very  costly, 
since  music  in  the  open  air  is  impossible  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  year  on  account  of  our  variable  climate.  The  people 
in  the  country  places,  and  even  in  the  smaller  cities,  have  no 
opportunities  to  enjoy  music  outside  of  the  church,  where  only 
the  simplest  songs  can  be  heard.  Such  meagre  facilities, 
coupled  with  the  high  cost  of  good  instruments,  are  not  likely 
to  do  much  to  cultivate  a  love  for  music ;  hence  we  cannot 
make  the  progress  in  this  direction  that  seems  possible  in  mat- 
ters of  taste  and  dress. 

It  may  at  first  sight  seem  strange  to  judge  that  the  love  of 
good  music  will  not  grow  in  America  where  there  is  so  large  a 
sale  of  musical  instruments.  The  difiiculty  does  not  come  from 
a  lack  of  opportunity  to  make  a  start  in  music,  but  from  the 
lack  of  incentive  to  further  progress.     There  is  a  great  gap 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  35 

between  the  simple  songs  of  the  church  and  fireside  and  the 
music  of  the  opera  and  orchestra.  The  better  pieces  of  music 
are  so  seldom  heard,  even  by  the  few, 'that  they  exert  little  in- 
fluence on  the  'public  taste.  The  average  musician  learns  a 
few  simple  pieces  and  struggles  on  in  isolation  for  a  few  years 
only  to  yield  to  the  inevitable,  as  soon  as  the  duties  of  life  be- 
come arduous.  Until  this  isolation  is  broken  up  by  the  cheap- 
ening of  concerts,  operas  and  other  means  by  which  the  public 
taste  can  be  elevated  to  a  higher  standard,  there  is  no  hope  of 
progress,  even  though  a  cheap  organ  be  in  every  house. 

I  would  not  have  the  reader  infer,  however,  that  the  love  of 
music  will  die  out.  Among  a  large  class  of  the  people  this 
love  is  now  so  strong  that  even  the  present  high  cost  of  music 
will  not  prevent  them  from  gratifying  their  desire  for  it.  It  is 
not  probable,  however,  that  the  love  for  music  will  grow  among 
the  classes  for  whom  it  now  has  but  little  attraction.  In  some 
way  music,  like  every  other  new  pleasure,  must,  for  a  time,  at 
least,  be  made  free  and  attractive,  before  the  love  of  it  can  be- 
come universal.  Our  future  progress  must,  in  this,  as  in  other 
respects,  follow  the  economical  lines  marked  out  by  our  environ- 
ments. We  shall  thus,  as  a  people,  be  less  likely  to  develop 
in  music,  the  drama,  and  other  pleasures  which  to  us  are  too 
costly  ;  and  will  seek  a  compensation  in  books,  pictures,  dress 
and  home,  of  which  the  cost  is  relatively  so  small. 

In  Australia,  however,  there  seem  to  be  other  conditions 
from  those  in  America  through  which  a  different  class  of  pleas- 
ures  is  favored.  The  climate  is  so  dry,  and  the  temperature  so 
even  and  moderate,  that  an  out-door  life  is  made  most  enjoy- 
able. For  this  reason,  there  is,  perhaps,  no  portion  of  the 
world  where  so  much  attention  is  devoted  to  all  classes  of  open- 
air  sources  of  enjoyment.  The  people  have  learned  to  enjoy 
field  sports  heartily,  and  to  have  a  keen  appreciation  of  athletic 
games. 

The  people  of  Australia  and  the  United  States  both  received 
from  English  ancestors  a  common  stock  of  customs,  habits  and 
pleasures.  Were  it  not  for  the  radical  differences  in  their  new 
environments,  they  would  have  developed  along  the  same  lines. 
The  rapid  and  violent  changes  in  American  climate,  have, 


36  The  Consumption  of  Wealth, 

however,  caused  the  American  people  to  become  house  animals, 
who  do  not,  as  a  rule,  even  enjoy  walking  as  an  exercise  ; 
while  the  climate  of  Australia  has  induced  its  people  to  live 
more  in  the  open  air.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  traits  of 
character  inherited  from  common  ancestors  are  rapidly  being 
displaced  by  others  more  fitted  to  the  new  environment  of  each 
nation.  The  differences  in  the  pleasures  of  these  nations  must 
in  each  age  show  themselves  more  prominently  until  in  the 
end  their  common  language  will  be  the  only  link  which  binds 
them  together. 

We  cannot,  I  think,  lay  too  much  stress  upon  the  effect  of 
the  environment  of  each  nation  upon  its  consumption  and 
pleasures.  Each  nation  has  a  strong  tendency  to  love  what  its 
environment  can  furnish  with  the  least  expense.  It  is  not  an 
accident  that  the  Germans  like  beer  and  music,  while  the 
French  love  art  and  wine.  Nor  could  Russia  imitate  either 
these  nations,  if  she  were  to  try.  Her  climate  is  a  barrier  to 
such  development,  and  forces  her  people  into  another  mode  of 
living. 

And  it  is  still  less  possible  to  keep  European  habits  and  cus- 
toms here  in  America.  We  have  our  cheap  pleasures  which 
we  must  cultivate,  and  our  dangerous  ones  which  we  must, 
avoid.  The  newer  classes  of  immigrants  seek  to  remain  Euro- 
pean in  their  living ;  yet  the  new  environment  will  be  too 
powerful  for  them.  This  new  influence  is  most  clearly  seen  in 
their  drinking  habits.  However  strongly  they  may  cling  to 
their  beer  or  whiskey,  in  the  end  they  will  be  forced  to  give  up 
a  habit  destructive  to  them  in  their  new  environment.  Alco- 
holic drinks  do  not  fit  into  American  conditions,  however 
much  they  may  be  suited  to  those  of  some  parts  of  Europe. 
We  must  find  some  other  means  of  satisfying  our  thirst  in  a 
way  more  in  harmony  with  the  soil  and  climate  about  us.  I 
do  not,  however,  regard  this  problem  as  a  simple  one  of  easy 
solution.  Drinking  water  in  America  has  not  often  that  purity 
which  good  health  demands.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  men  will 
use  as  a  national  drink  something  that  is  not  a  large  source  of 
pleasure.  The  instinct  to  get  pleasure  out  of  everything  is 
too  strong  to  let  so  great  a  possibility  pass  by  unused.     What 


The  CoJisumption  of  Wealth.  37 

Americans  can  drink  to  get  health  and  pleasure  with  a  mini- 
mum of  pain  and  disease,  is  one  of  the  many  diflBcult  problems 
which  they  must  solve  before  their  civilization  can  be  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  continent  upon  which  they  live. 


V. 

THE   LOVE   OF  HOME  AND   COUNTRY. 

Any  explanation  of  the  consumption  of  wealth  and  of  the 
motives  which  influence  men  in  production,  is  defective  if  it 
assumes  that  men  work  only  for  material  commodities.  The 
commercial  spirit  has,  during  this  century,  gained  such  a  com- 
plete control  over  the  way  in  which  men  think  and  act,  that  we 
are  apt  to  look  upon  mankind  as  engaged  solely  in  a  struggle 
for  material  ends.  The  sole  question  seems  to  be  what  mate- 
rial results  can  be  obtained  by  each  one  from  his  labor.  The 
prominence  of  these  tendencies  has  favored  that  school  of 
economists  who  have  created  an  economic  man  desiring  only 
material  wealth.  Such  a  man  furnishes  them  with  an  ideal  to 
which  they  think  actual  men  will  more  nearly  conform  in  com- 
ing ages.  This  point  of  view  has  been  further  strengthened 
by  the  growth  of  that  cosmopolitan  feeling  which  would  sub- 
ordinate the  nation  and  the  locality  to  what  they  deem  broader 
ends.  All  these  national  and  local  ties  which  have  been  in  the 
past  such  powerful  incentives  to  human  progress,  are  regarded 
as  remnants  of  the  feelings  of  a  lower  type  of  men  which  must 
be  outgrown  by  the  future  man. 

This  narrow  conception  of  economics  is  based  upon  a  false 
analysis  of  human  nature.  The  pleasures  of  men  are  not  to 
be  narrowed  down  to  one  single  controlling  desire,  but  all  the 
possible  pleasures  are  to  be  developed  to  their  fullest  extent. 
Each  of  these  pleasures  appeals  to  some  element  in  human  na- 
ture ;  and  that  civilization  is  highest  which  gratifies  the  largest 
number  of  them.  It  is  not  the  province  of  the  economist  to 
pick  out  any  one  of  these  desires  and  study  what  the  world 
would  become  if  this  were  the  only  desire.     The  real  problem 


38  The  Consunipiio7i  of  Wealth. 

is  to  discover  what  must  be  the  intensity  of  each  pleasure,  in 
order  that  mankind  can  enjoy  the  whole  earth  with  the  least 
labor.  I  have  no  objection  to  an  abstract  method  by  which 
any  one  motive  may  be  placed  in  such  a  prominence  that  its 
eflfects  can  be  clearly  seen.  Yet  the  same  method  should  be 
applied  to  the  study  of  each  motive,  and  not  merely  to  one 
only,  as  is  done  by  those  that  emphasize  the  love  of  material 
wealth. 

It  is  therefore  a  problem  of  prime  importance  to  determine 
the  place  which  the  love  of  home,  locality,  and  country  will 
take  in  the  future.  Are  we  to  expect  each  man  to  become  so 
cosmopolitan  that  he  will  lose  all  those  feelings  which  bind 
him  to  the  place  of  his  birth  ?  Will  our  farms  cease  to  become 
homes,  and  he  leased  at  regular  intervals  to  the  highest  bid- 
ders ?  Or  will  the  attachment  to  home  and  land  so  increase  that 
much  of  the  labor  done  by  their  occupants  will  be  done  not  for 
a  material  return,  but  for  the  love  they  bear  for  the  place  of 
their  birth  ?  Our  age  is  full  of  discussions  which  bear  upon  this 
problem ;  yet  they  do  not  touch  upon  the  vital  issue.  They 
assume  the  correctness  of  the  cosmopolitan  idea,  and  seek  only 
to  enunciate  the  laws  of  a  world  where  men  of  strong  passions 
and  appetites  use  the  world  solely  for  material  ends.  Doubt- 
less the  man  who  thinks  only  of  beefsteak,  beer  and  tobacco 
cares  little  for  local  attachments  and  would  gravitate  readily  to 
places  where  these  luxuries  were  cheapest.  Such  men  would 
readily  turn  out  the  people  of  Ireland  to  get  their  beef,  ruin 
Virginia  to  get  their  tobacco,  or  change  India  to  a  wheatfield 
to  get  their  bread.  Yet  in  spite  of  many  strong  tendencies  in 
their  favor,  such  men  may  not  inherit  the  earth.  They  may 
in  the  end  be  driven  out  by  those  who  have  such  weak  appe- 
tites that  other  pleasures  will  control  their  actions.  It  is  there- 
fore of  interest  to  see  what  economic  use  can  still  be  made  of 
their  feelings,  and  especially  of  those  which  bind  men  to  their 
homes  and  localities.  None  will  deny  that  the  influence  of 
such  feelings  has  been  very  powerful  in  the  past.  It  is  only 
their  influence  on  future  progress  that  needs  investigation. 

The  chief  impediment  to  a  more  rapid  social  progress  doubt- 
less lies  in  the  slow  increase  of  the  products  of  the  soil.     The 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  39 

cultivation  of  new  regions  and  the  better  use  of  older  local- 
ities do  not  proceed  rapidly  enough  to  prevent  a  high  price  of 
food.  It  has  been  customary  to  explain  this  high  price  by  the 
increased  cost  of  cultivating  the  newer  lands.  This  view  of 
the  problem  arises  from  a  double  sense  in  which  the  term  "cost 
of  cultivation  "  is  used.  In  one  sense  it  means'the  amount  of 
labor  needed  to  cultivate  a  field  ;  in  the  other  sense  it  includes 
also  a  return  on  the  labor  spent  in' making  the  land  tillable. 
If  land  is  once  in  cultivation,  it  will  not  cease  to  be  used  if  the 
return  is  sufficient  to  repay  the  annual  cost  of  cultivation. 
Upon  old  land  the  cost  of  cultivation  is  reckoned  in  this  way 
and  the  return  above  this  cost  is  called  rent.  But  no  one  brings 
land  into  caltivation  unless  the  price  of  food  is  high  enough 
to  pay  both  for  the  cost  of  cultivating  the  land  and  for  making 
it  tillable. 

For  this  reason  the  new  lands  determine  the  price  of  food. 
The  older  lands  have  a  large  rent  simply  because  no  attention 
is  paid  to  the  cost  of  bringing  them  into  cultivation.  I  regard 
this  way  of  estimating  rent  to  be  correct  ;  yet  it  should  not 
blind  us  to  the  fact  that  the  higher  cost  of  production  upon 
newer  lands  comes  from  adding  elements  to  that  cost  which 
are  thrown  out  when  the  rent  of  older  land  is  estimated.  If 
these  elements  were  added  it  is  likely  that  the  average  farm 
would  yield  no  rent.  It  is  just  as  legitimate  for  Carey  to  add 
the  cost  of  clearing,  breaking,  road-making,  and  even  the  ex- 
pense of  migration  to  the  cost  of  cultivating  the  older  lands,  as 
it  is  for  Ricardo  to  add  these  items  to  the  cost  of  cultivating 
the  land  at  the  margin  of  cultivation.  Carey  shows  that  no 
land  pays  rent  by  the  same  method  of  accounting  that  Ricardo 
uses  for  the  last  land  brought  into  cultivation.  Whether  the 
landowners  as  a  class  owe  the  community,  or  the  community  is 
indebted  to  the  landowners,  depends  entirely  upon  how  the 
accounts  are  kept.  It  is  just  as  proper  to  get  a  return  for  any 
one  expense  in  opening  up  a  new  section  of  land,  as  for  any 
other ;  and  if  they  are  all  added,  the  price  of  food  would  have 
to  be  much  higher  than  it  now  is  to  give  a  reasonable  return 
for  all  the  capital  invested  upon  it.  No  stock  company  could 
afford  to  open  up  a  new  country  for  the  return  they  would  get 


40  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

at  the  present  price  of  food.  All  such  enterprises  have  failed, 
and  must  fail,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case.  Even  at  the 
margin  of  cultivation,  the  value  of  land  is  much  below  the  cost 
f  making  it  tillable.  The  equality  between  the  value  of  the 
products  of  such  land,  and  the  cost  of  cultivating  it,  is  obtained 
by  a  happy  system  of  book-keeping  which  adds  to  the  cost 
of  cultivating  it  just  enough  of  the  cost  of  making  it  tillable  to 
balance  the  accounts.  If  the  price  of  the  products  of  the  land 
happens  to  be  high,  a  few  more  items  connected  with  the  mak- 
ing of  the  land  are  added  ;  if  it  is  low,  enough  of  them  are 
omitted  to  make  the  value  of  its  products  equal  to  the  cost  of 
cultivation. 

We  have  not  in  this  connection  the  rent  problem  to  solve, 
but  we  have  one  of  equal  importance.  What  motive  shall 
society  use  to  get  new  land  brought  into  cultivation,  and  why 
is  the  value  of  land  below  the  cost  of  making  it  tillable  ?  The 
price  of  food  is  too  high  to  say  that  it  is  determined  by  the 
annual  cost  of  cultivation,  and  it  is  too  low  to  say  that  the  cost 
of  making  land  tillable  is  one  of  its  necessary  elements. 

It  is  therefore  evident  that  commercial  motives  are  not  the 
only  motives  which  cause  men  to  bring  land  into  cultivation. 
Farmers  do  not  view  their  land  merely  as  an  instrument  of 
production  upon  which  they  will  work  for  material  ends.  They 
also  regard  it  as  a  part  of  their  home  in  which  they  take  a 
pride.  They  become  attached  to  their  land,  and  much  of  their 
labor  expended  upon  it  comes  solely  from  a  desire  to  make 
their  homes  pleasant  and  beautiful.  A  farmer  living  upon  his 
own  land  does  to  stop  working  as  soon  as  the  return  of  his 
labor  falls  below  the  average  rate  of  wages.  He  continues  to 
work  for  a  small  return,  or  even  for  no  return  at  all  from  the 
interest  he  has  in  the  farm.  He  often  spends  much  more  than 
the  land  is  worth  to  remove  the  stumps  and  stones  from  it, 
from  a  desire  to  have  it  look  well.  He  destroys  weeds  because 
he  dislikes  to  see  them,  and  drains  his  land  largely  because  the 
waste  land  is  an  eyesore  to  him.  Such  labor  is  a  part  of  his 
consumption,  although  it  adds  much  to  the  productive  powers 
of  the  land.  He  enjoys  his  farm  as  keenly  as  he  does  his  food  ; 
and  labors  as  earnestly  for  one  end  as  for  the  other. 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  41 

The  reason  then  why  the  value  of  land  is  often  so  much  be- 
low the  cost  of  making  it  tillable,  comes  from  the  motives 
which  induce  the  farmers  to  improve  it.  Inasmuch  as  the 
motive  which  induces  men  to  endure  the  hardships  of  frontier 
life  is  a  love  of  home,  all  their  eflForts  for  this  end  will  reduce 
the  price  of  food  and  the  result  is  the  same  as  though  the  labor 
of  improving  the  land  was  that  much  less.  Increase  the  love 
they  have  for  their  land,  and  the  nearer  will  the  price  of  food 
approach  the  annual  cost  of  tilling  the  land. 

These  facts  have  a  bearing  upon  one  of  the  important  prob- 
lems of  the  day.  There  are  those  who  would  take  from  the 
farmers  their  right  to  land,  and  make  them  merely  tenants,  at 
will,  of  the  community.  It  may,  however,  be  questioned 
whether  the  community  would  make  a  permanent  gain  by  this 
change.  The  price  of  food  under  these  conditions  would  have 
to  be  high  enough  to  make  it  profitable  for  a  capitalist  to  im- 
prove and  cultivate  the  land.  Every  weed  that  was  cut,  every 
ditch  that  was  dug,  or  every  stone  removed,  and  every  other 
item  of  labor  would  have  to  be  paid  for  by  the  community 
at  market  rates.  To  the  price  of  food  needed  to  cultivate 
the  land,  must  be  added  a  large  fraction  to  pay  the  interest 
upon  the  capital  needed  to  bring  the  land  into  a  high  state 
of  cultivation.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  community  would 
give  the  increased  security  to  the  farmers,  and  foster  those 
motives  in  them  which  increase  the  love  of  home  and  land, 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  farmers  would  finally 
bear  all  the  cost  of  improving  the  land.  The  public  cannot 
seize  the  land  without  increasing  the  cost  of  food.  They  will, 
however,  gradually  bear  a  diminishing  share  of  the  cost  of 
making  the  land  tillable,  and  can  secure  their  food  at  the 
annual  cost  of  production  as  soon  as  men  of  strong  local  attach- 
ment are  placed  upon  all  the  land. 

These  facts  have  a  more  general  application.  The  home, 
locality,  and  the  nation  should  be  improved  from  the  very  love 
we  bear  them  ;  and  not  as  an  investment.  They  are  sources 
of  pleasure ;  and  the  work  we  do  for  them  should  be  regarded 
as  an  act  of  consumption.  In  fact,  it  is  impossible  to  get  men 
to  act  in  these  matters  from  other  motives.    The  roads,  schools, 


42  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

and  churches  are  seldom  improved  until  the  community  learn 
to  love  their  locality.  Cities  do  not  get  free  parks,  pleasant 
streets,  fine  public  buildings,  and  other  means  of  enjoyment, 
until  their  people  take  a  pride  in  them,  and  love  to  make  them 
beautiful.  In  national  affairs,  also,  rivers  and  harbors  are 
improved  only  as  the  love  of  country  increases.  Forests  are 
not  preserved  until  the  love  of  nature  makes  the  people  willing 
to  bear  the  cost  of  restoring  the  mountains  and  other  waste 
land  to  their  primal  condition.  Commercial  motives  lead  only 
to  the  exploiting  of  the  land.  A  short  season  of  artificial 
cheapness  is  followed  by  permanent  high  prices  caused  by  the 
exhaustion  of  the  soil.  Permanent  low  prices  come  from  other 
motives  ;  they  are  largely  due  to  the  love  which  the  people 
have  for  home,  nature,  and  the  land.  Even  the  improvement 
in  stock  is  due  mainly  to  the  love  for  the  animals  they  use.  It 
is  the  farmer  who  enjoys  his  horses  while  working  them  who 
creates  a  demand  for  better  horses.  Cattle  and  even  hogs  are 
things  of  beauty,  and  much  of  the  work  they  cause  is  a  labor 
of  love.  It  is  also  said  of  sheep  that  they  cannot  be  reared 
solely  from  commercial  motives.  Unless  the  herder  loves  his 
flocks,  they  do  not  thrive. 

It  is  a  wrong  tendency  which  would  divest  men  of  all  their 
interest  in  the  objects  surrounding  them.  The  exclusion  of  all 
motives  except  those  that  are  commercial,  would  make  com- 
modities dearer  and  not  cheaper.  It  is  only  with  the  cheapest 
classes  of  laborers  that  the  value  of  what  they  produce  always 
equals  the  effort  of  production.  Such  men  get  no  pleasure 
from  their  work,  and  would  cease  to  work  if  their  wages  did 
not  fully  compensate  them  for  their  labor.  The  higher  classes 
of  men  have  a  love  for  work  ;  they  take  a  great  pleasure  in  pro- 
ducing a  good  article,  and  in  viewing  the  results  of  their  efforts. 
The  cost  to  the  public  of  each  article  they  produce,  is  the  effort 
of  production  less  the  pleasure  derived  from  its  production. 
The  price  of  an  article  will  gradually  sink  below  the  effort  of 
production  with  the  growth  of  pleasure  in  production.  The 
low  price  of  literary  products  shows  this  tendency  very  plainly- 
The  rewards  of  orators,  musicians,  and  artists  usually  follow 
the  same  law.    The  exceptions,  which  of  course  are  very  promi- 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  43 

nent,  are  due  to  the  prevalent  scarcity  of  the  better  types  of 
men.  The  result  of  their  labor  is  a  monopoly  so  long  as  their 
number  is  so  limited.  Increase  the  supply  of  such  men,  and 
the  low  cost  of  their  labor  will  be  apparent. 

The  prevalent  separation  of  the  laws  of  consumption  from 
those  of  production,  has  involved  economic  discussion  in  two 
fundamental  errors.  Consumption  has  been  regarded  solely  as 
a  source  of  pleasure  and  production  as  a  purely  painful  effort. 
Our  consumption,  however,  is  modified  by  the  different  costs  of 
the  articles  consumed,  and  the  cost  of  production  to  consumers 
depends  largely  upon  the  amount  of  pleasure  producers  obtain 
from  their  work.  We  cannot  therefore  adopt  the  simple  rule 
that  the  value  of  commodities  depends  upon  their  cost  of  pro- 
duction, if  by  cost  is  meant  the  sum  of  disagreeable  efforts. 
The  normal  value  of  many  commodities  will  be  below  their 
cost,  and  the  revenue  which  the  owners  of  permanent  improve- 
ments derive  from  them,  will  be  reduced  as  the  love  of  home 
and  country  grows  among  those  who  live  upon  the  land. 
When  this  love  reaches  its  maximum,  the  home,  locality  and 
country  will  be  improved  from  a  liking  for  them  ;  and  not  as 
an  investment.  Parks,  forests,  rivers,  churches  and  schools 
will  be  regarded  as  things  of  beauty  ;  and  for  the  labor  which 
each  age  bestows  upon  them,  its  people  will  expect  no  other 
reward  than  the  pleasure  they  get  from  their  use.  In  this 
way  each  succeeding  age  can  get  a  better  world  than  their 
fathers  had,  and  can  enjoy  it  with  less  labor. 


VI. 

THE   STANDARD   OF   LIFE. 

When  we  look  about  for  the  causes  which  determine  the 
standard  of  life  it  is  necessary  at  first  to  regard  solely  the  ma- 
terial environment  of  men.  The  first  problem  in  any  endeavor 
to  civilize  men  is  to  reduce  the  passions  and  appetites  by  which 
they  are  controlled.  The  passions  must  be  regulated  by  moral 
restraint.  The  appetites,  however,  are  the  results  of  the  ma- 
terial environment  and  can  be  reduced  only  as  this  environment 


44  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

is  changed.  To  this  distinction  I  desire  to  call  especial  atten- 
tion ;  as  it  separates  the  economic  problem  from  the  moral  one. 
The  two  fields  are  quite  distinct ;  yet  no  considerable  progress 
can  be  made  in  one  direction,  without  a  corresponding  improve- 
ment in  the  other.  There  is  a  limit  beyond  which  moral  re- 
straint becomes  powerless,  so  long  as  the  appetites  have  their 
original  force.  On  the  other  hand,  reduced  appetites  alone 
cannot  lead  to  a  high  civilization,  if  the  passions  are  not  regu- 
lated by  the  growth  of  moral  motives. 

In  seeking  the  economic  causes  which  reduce  appetites,  the 
ideas  presented  in  the  preceding  sections  have  great  value. 
The  primary  cause  diminishing  the  love  for  food  is  the  in- 
creased regularity  in  the  food  supply.  So  long  as  feasting  and 
famine  follow  each  other  at  frequent  intervals,  an  intense  desire 
for  food  is  a  necessity  ;  the  possibility  of  surviving  during  a 
long  famine  seems  to  depend  solely  upon  the  strength  of  the 
appetite  during  the  periods  of  plenty.  Every  increase  in  the 
regularity  of  the  food  supply  allows  men  of  weaker  appetites 
to  survive.  The  struggle  for  existence  is  now  determined  by 
other  qualities  than  appetite  ;  and  a  new  class  of  men  gain  the 
ascendency,  over  whom  the  appetite  has  less  control. 

This  primary  change  in  appetite  is  the  cause  of  vast  economic 
results.  So  long  as  the  appetite  is  strong  and  the  sole  source 
of  pleasure  the  tendency  in  man  is  irresistible  to  limit  the  food 
supply  to  a  few  articles  which  give  the  greatest  pleasure. 
These  intense  pleasures  are  derived  usually  from  articles  which 
nature  can  supply  in  but  small  quantities.  The  desire  for  rare 
articles  is  the  direct  outcome  of  vigorous  appetites.  The  demand 
for  liquor  and  tobacco  keeps  the  supply  of  food  and  clothing  at 
a  minimum.  The  simple  vegetables  are  set  aside  for  meats  and 
other  condensed  foods.  The  more  common  parts  of  the  animal 
are  neglected  for  some  rare  portion,  and  wild  game  and  animals 
are  preferred  to  domestic  breeds.  In  these,  and  in  many  other 
ways,  strong  appetites  reduce  the  food  supply  to  the  narrowest 
limits,  and  bring  on  a  conflict  between  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion and  the  means  of  subsistence. 

The  ideal  of  a  man  controlled  by  animal  appetites  is  to 
feast  continually  upon  some  rare  article  and  to  gratify  his  love 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  45 

for  strong  drinks.  Necessity  may  compel  him  to  use  more 
common  articles,  but  with  the  first  increase  of  income,  the  ad- 
ditional means  are  used  to  secure  some  rare  article,  and  not  to 
obtain  more  in  quantity  or  a  greater  variety.  With  every  re- 
duction in  the  strength  of  appetite,  this  evil  is  reduced.  A 
greater  variety  is  sought,  and  new  pleasures  exert  more  influ- 
ence, and  an  increase  of  population  can  accompany  a  fuller 
satisfaction  of  human  wants. 

A  regular  supply  of  food  is  thus  the  first  condition  to  an  in- 
crease in  the  standard  of  life.  It  furnishes  the  only  condition 
through  which  the  appetite  can  be  reduced.  There  is,  how- 
ever, another  condition  which  comes  in  to  strengthen  this  ten- 
dency as  soon  as  the  first  condition  is  secured.  Variety  of  food 
acts  in  the  same  manner  that  a  regular  food  supply  does  in  re- 
ducing the  strength  of  the  appetites.  But  to  secure  a  varied 
diet,  is  not  so  easy  a  problem  as  it  appears.  Many  writers  have 
emphasized  the  importance  of  a  varied  diet,  as  the  condition 
of  a  high  standard  of  life.  They  have,  however,  thought  that 
the  tendency  to  secure  a  varied  diet  was  of  so  primary  a  char- 
acter that  any  improvement  in  production  would  always  lead 
to  an  increase  in  variety  in  consumption.  This  assumption  I 
regard  as  a  great  mistake.  On  the  one  hand,  they  overlook 
the  strong  tendency  of  primitive  men  to  use  improved  produc- 
tion to  enable  them  to  secure  rare  articles  which  appeal  in  the 
strongest  way  to  the  cravings  of  an  abnormal  appetite.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  overlook  the  strong  tendency  to  increase 
population  which  causes  every  improvement  in  production  to 
be  used  mainly  as  a  means  of  supporting  more  people  in  about 
the  same  condition  in  which  the  smaller  number  was  formerly 
supported.  After  a  great  improvement,  increased  prosperity 
for  a  time  allows  a  greater  variety  in  consumption  ;  but  the 
rapid  increase  of  population  forces  too  often  the  masses  back 
into  a  condition  similar  to  that  in  which  they  were  before  the 
improvement  was  made. 

We  cannot,  therefore,  accept  a  permanent  increase  in  the 
variety  of  consumption,  as  the  necessary  result  of  improved 
production.  Some  additional  condition  must  be  found  before 
we  can  feel  sure  that  possible  improvement  in  society  will  be- 


46  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

come  a  permanent  reality.  This  condition  must  be  sought  in 
the  economic  order  of  consumption.  We  do  not  always  con- 
sume articles  in  such  an  order  that  those  which  give  the  greatest 
pleasure  will  come  first.  We  are  also  influenced  by  their  cost 
in  labor.  The  influence  of  labor  upon  consumption  causes 
those  articles  to  be  consumed  first  which  have  the  smallest 
ratio  of  cost  to  utility.  Several  articles  must  have  about  the 
same  ratio  of  cost  to  utility,  before  a  varied  diet  can  become  a 
permanent  possibility.  The  standard  of  life  is  equal  to  the 
number  of  articles  which  have  about  the  same  ratio  of  cost  to 
ulility,  as  the  original  food  supply  has.  So  long  as  the  con- 
sumption of  a  dollar's  worth  of  potatoes  or  rice  will  give  double 
the  pleasure  from  the  same  value  in  other  articles  of  food,  a 
varied  diet  for  the  mass  of  the  people  cannot  be  maintained. 
A  great  revolution  in  industry  might  for  a  time  so  reduce  the 
pressure  of  population  upon  subsistence  that  a  variety  in  con- 
sumption would  result.  Yet  in  time  the  pressure  of  popula- 
tion would  be  felt,  and  those  articles  which  have  a  high  ratio 
of  cost  to  the  pleasure  of  their  consumption,  would  gradually 
cease  to  be  consumed,  and  at  length  the  potato  or  rice  diet 
would  again  come  into  general  use. 

It  is  only  by  a  change  in  the  ratio  of  the  cost  of  commodities 
to  their  utility,  that  such  a  relapse  into  old  habits  can  be  pre- 
vented. There  is  no  hope  of  permanent  progress  so  long  as 
some  one  source  of  the  food  supply  has  a  much  lower  ratio  of 
cost  to  utility  than  other  kinds  of  food.  As  soon,  however,  as 
two  or  more  articles  have  about  the  same  ratio  of  cost  to  utility, 
it  is  impossible  for  the  pressure  of  population  to  force  either  of 
them  out  of  use.  There  can  be  no  advantage  gained  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  by  the  use  of  one  article  of  food,  if  there 
are  other  articles  of  which  a  dollar's  worth  will  give  the  same 
pleasure.  On  the  other  hand,  there  would  be  a  decided  disad- 
vantage. The  two  articles  would  in  a  measure  supplement 
one  another,  causing  a  less  quantity  of  two  articles  to  satisfy 
the  needs  of  a  community  in  a  better  manner  than  would  a 
larger  quantity  of  either  article.  If  one  man  has  a  quantity  of 
potatoes,  and  another  man  has  a  like  quantity  of  corn,  an  ex- 
change between  them  is  advantageous  to  both  parties.     This 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  47 

is  a  fundamental  law  of  economics  which  must  not  be  over- 
looked. Should  any  additional  article,  say  rye,  have  its  cost 
reduced  to  a  level  with  that  of  potatoes  and  corn,  it  would  be- 
come a  great  part  of  the  daily  food  of  the  community,  and 
could  not  be  displaced  by  any  pressure  of  population. 

In  the  ratig  of  cost  to  utility  which  different  articles  have,  is 
to  be  found  the  condition  which  determines  the  standard  of 
life.  All  those  articles  which  have  about  the  same  ratio  of 
cost  to  utility  which  the  cheapest  article  of  food  has,  will  form 
a  permanent  part  of  the  standard  of  life.  This  standard  will 
be  low  in  countries  which  are  especially  productive  of  some 
one  article.  The  standard  will  be  gradually  raised  as  im- 
proved production  or  commerce  reduces  the  cost  of  other  arti- 
cles so  as  to  give  them  the  same  ratio  of  cost  to  utility  as  that 
article  has  which  forms  the  original  source  of  food  supply.  It 
is  not,  however,  the  reduction  in  cost  of  every  article  that  is  an 
advantage  to  the  community  ;  to  reduce  the  cost  of  a  cheap 
article  might  produce  a  disastrous  result.  It  is  the  cheapening 
of  relatively  dear  articles  that  raises  the  standard  of  life. 
Sometimes  it  might  be  that  an  increase  of  cost  would  be'advan- 
tageous,  if  it  is  the  relatively  cheap  articles  which  have  their 
cost  increased.  This,  I  think,  is  the  real  cause  why  the  colder 
countries  have  a  higher  standard  of  life.  The  cost  of  all  kinds 
of  food  in  these  countries  is  greater  than  in  milder  climates ; 
but  the  cost  of  vegetable  food  is  increased  much  more  than 
that  of  animal  food,  and  as  a  result,  the  ratio  of  cost  to  their 
utility  is  more  nearly  equal.  The  utility  of  meat  is  also 
greatly  increased  in  colder  countries  because  it  can  be  pre- 
served much  more  cheaply.  Meat  cannot  become  a  regular 
article  of  diet  in  warm  countries  until  science  discovers  some 
better  means  for  its  preservation. 

When  we  compare  different  countries  in  the  same  latitude,  it 
can  be  shown  that  differences  in  their  standards  of  life  result 
from  peculiarities  in  soil  and  climate,  by  which  a  greater  or  a 
smaller  number  of  articles  have  about  the  same  ratio  of  cost  to 
utility.  The  misfortunes  of  Ireland  are  largely  due  to  the 
small  relative  cost  of  the  potato.  Had  har  soil  been  less  produc- 
tive of  potatoes,  or  more  productive  of  other  kinds  of  food,  her 


48  The  Cojisumption  of  Wealth. 

history  would  have  been  different.  It  was  the  good  fortune  of 
England  that  at  an  early  period,  when  the  habits  of  her  people 
were  forming,  several  important  articles  of  food  had  about  the 
same  ratio  of  cost  to  utility.  The  potato  did  not  have  here 
that  advantage  over  other  crops,  which  it  had  in  Ireland, 
while  root  crops  were  introduced  at  too  late  a  period  to  affect 
the  standard  of  life.  The  soil  is  especially  adapted  to  wheat  ; 
while  the  splendid  pastures  caused  cattle  to  have  a  low  cost. 
Poultry  and  eggs  were  abundant  and  butter  was  as  cheap  as 
lard.  For  these  reasons,  all  these  articles  became  important 
parts  of  the  national  diet,  and  they  had  so  low  a  cost  that  the 
pressure  of  population  could  not  displace  them.  As  a  result 
also,  of  cheap  cattle,  leather  shoes  became  a  part  of  the  stan- 
dard of  life  much  earlier  in  Kngland  than  in  Scotland,  where 
few  cattle  were  raised.  The  small  use  of  meat  by  Germans,  it 
seems  to  me,  was  largely  due  to  the  frequent  wars,  which  made 
cattle  a  poor  kind  of  property.  Only  that  perfect  security  to 
property  which  an  insular  position  gave  to  England,  can  cause 
such  an  increase  of  cattle  as  to  allow  meat  to  become  an  article 
of  regular  diet. 

The  increase  of  rent  also  has  a  tendency  to  increase  the 
variety  of  food.  Rent  causes  a  like  addition  to  the  cost  of 
every  crop,  and  thus  aflfects  the  cheaper  foods  more  than  the 
dearer.  If  ten  days  work  will  produce  the  amount  of  food  in 
potatoes  that  twenty  days'  work  will  in  wheat,  an  increase  in 
rent  equal  to  ten  days'  work  will  increase  the  cost  of  that  quan- 
tity of  potatoes  to  twenty  days'  work,  while  the  cost  of  the 
wheat  will  be  increased  to  thirty  days'  work.  In  this  way, 
while  the  cost  of  potatoes  will  be  doubled,  the  price  of  wheat 
will  be  increased  by  only  one-half 

That  the  standard  of  life  depends  upon  the  regularity  and 
variety  of  food  supply,  cannot  receive  too  much  emphasis. 
The  value  of  this  fact  must  be  clearly  seen  or  no  progress  can 
be  made  in  the  analysis  of  consumption.  The  increase  in  the 
quantity  of  'the  commodities  produced  does  not  raise  the  stan- 
dard of  life  unless  there  is  an  increase  in  the  variety  consumed. 
Suppose  the  pleasure  derived  from  a  dollar's  worth  of  liquor 
or  tobacco  equalled  20  units  of  pleasure,  and  that  from  the 


The  Cojisumption  of  Wealth.  49 

same  value  of  food  and  clothing  was  10  units,  while  the  highest 
pleasure  derived  from  other  commodities  was  2  units.  Should 
production  be  improved  under  these  conditions,  all  the  increased 
income  of  the  consumer  would  go  to  the  purchase  of  liquor 
and  tobacco.  The  supply  of  food  and  clothing  would  remain 
at  its  former  minimum,  and  no  increase  in  variety  in  consump- 
tion would  follow. 

The  pleasure  derived  from  liquor  and  tobacco  must  be  re- 
duced to  about  10  units  before  a  marked  change  in  consump- 
tion can  take  place.  Then  more  food  and  clothing  would  be 
consumed,  and  a  few  of  the  other  articles  in  less  demand  would 
come  in  use  in  a  small  way.  Now  the  standard  of  life  would 
be  enlarged,  and  the  increased  variety  could  not  be  reduced  by 
any  pressure  of  population  on  the  food  supply. 

Suppose  again,  that  for  one  person  10  units  of  pleasure  was 
obtained  from  a  dollar's  worth  of  wheat,  and  only  5  units  from 
rye  bread,  while  for  a  second  person  this  quantity  of  wheat 
bread  gave  8  units  of  pleasure,  and  the  rye  bread  7  units.  It 
is  plain  that  the  first  person  would  not  enlarge  his  diet  if  his 
income  were  increased.  The  second  person  would  modify  his 
consumption,  since  an  increased  use  of  wheat  bread  would 
reduce  the  satisfaction  obtained  from  at  least  7  units,  and  then 
rye  bread  w^ould  come  into  use. 

With  the  cheapening  of  produce,  the  standard  of  life  is 
always  enlarged,  if  there  is  some  new  article,  not  in  use,  from 
the  consumption  of  which  nearly  as  much  pleasure  could  be 
obtained  as  from  the  articles  in  use.  If  a  dollar's  worth  of 
wheat  bread  gave  10  units  of  pleasure,  rye  bread  9  units, 
Graham  bread  8  units,  and  corn  bread  7  units,  every  increase 
of  income  would  result  in  an  increased  variety  in  the  use  of 
bread.  A  person  with  such  a  demand  for  bread,  would  make 
a  different  use  of  an  increased  income  from  that  person  who 
gets  20  units  of  pleasure  from  wheat  bread  and  less  than  half 
that  amount  from  the  other  kinds. 

I  would  not  underestimate  the  influence  of  moral  motives  or 
of  improved  production  in  raising  the  standard  of  life  ;  yet  they 
can  have  but  little  permanent  effect  unless  they  are  supple- 
mented by  an  improved  variety  in  consumption.      The  first 


50  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

named  factors  in  progress  are  the  active  causes  which  force 
society  into  new  conditions,  and  keep  it  progressive  ;  the  latter 
is  the  means  by  which  the  results  of  progress  become  perma- 
nent parts  of  the  common  heritage.  A  varied  consumption  is 
the  anchor  which  prevents  a  relapse  into  former  conditions  when 
other  forces  are  inactive  or  seek  for  a  new  position  with  a  better 
foothold.  A  nation  with  a  few  intense  pleasures  might  also  be 
compared  to  a  tree  with  a  single  tap-root,  while  a  second  nation 
with  many  equal  pleasures  would  be  like  an  oak  with  a  thou- 
sand roots  branching -in  all  directions.  The  power  of  the  two 
nations  to  resist  the  destructive  tendencies  forcing  them  into  a 
lower  scale  of  living  would  be  as  difierent  as  is  the  power  of  the 
two  trees  to  resist  the  uprooting  force  of  a  fierce  wind. 

The  reduction  of  the  appetite  which  follows  every  increase 
in  the  variety  of  consumption,  forces  the  consumer  to  seek 
new  pleasures  to  counterbalance  the  loss  from  the  old  ones.  A 
mere  increase  in  the  quantity  of  articles  already  in  use  has  no 
such  effect,  and  can  easily  be  lost  by  the  pressure  of  hard  times, 
or  of  population,  since  no  change  is  made  in  the  appetites  of 
the  consumers.  It  would,  however,  prostrate  a  consumer,  to 
have  the  variety  of  his  food  greatly  reduced.  His  appetite, 
weakened  by  variety,  would  give  out  before  the  needs  of  his 
system  were  satisfied.  The  Irish  in  America  cannot  be  forced 
back  upon  the  potato  diet  of  their  fathers  without  destroying 
a  large  part  of  them.  Nor  can  the  American  people  be  reduced 
to  a  diet  of  corn  bread  and  cabbage  without  a  great  loss  of 
vitality  and  efficiency.  The  lowered  vitality  would  double  the 
death  rate,  while  the  decrease  in  efficiency  would  favor  a  greater 
use  of  foreign  labor.  If  our  workmen  in  the  future  are  to  live 
wholly  upon  cheap  coarse  foods,  they  will  not  be  the  descen- 
dants of  the  present  American  stock,  but  of  the  lower  races  of 
Europe  and  Asia.  A  new  class  of  cheap  labor  can  be  intro- 
duced much  more  easily  than  the  better  class  can  be  reduced 
to  a  lower  plain  of  living. 

The  basis  upon  which  the  standard  of  life  of  each  nation 
rests  has,  I  hope,  become  evident.  Economists  have,  too  often, 
viewed  the  old  pleasures  as  fixed,  and  hoped  to  reach  a  higher 
social  state  merely  by  an  increase  of  productive  power  through 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  51 

which  the  less  intense  pleasures  could  be  gratified.  They  have 
overlooked  the  reduction  in  intensity  of  old  pleasures  and  the 
growth  of  new  ones,  by  which  there  is  an  ever  enlarging  group 
of  pleasures  which  have  about  the  same  cost  for  each  unit  of 
pleasure.  It  is  not  the  increase  of  income  that  raises  new 
wants  into  a  position  to  be  gratified  ;  but  it  is  the  reduction  of 
old  pleasures  through  variety  in  consumption  that  forces  the 
consumer  to  resort  to  new  pleasures  to  make  up  for  the  loss  of 
the  old  ones. 

A  high  standard  of  life  has  the  closest  relation  to  a  weak 
appetite.  It  is  not  the  increase  of  goods  for  consumption  that 
raises  the  standard  of  life,  but  the  mental  state  of  a  man  after 
the  order  of  his  consumption  has  been  changed  so  as  to  allow 
a  greater  variety.  The  standard  of  life  is  determined,  not  so 
much  by  what  a  man  has  to  enjoy,  as  by  the  rapidity  with 
which  he  tires  of  any  one  pleasure.  To  have  a  high  standard 
means  to  enjoy  a  pleasure  intensely  and  to  tire  of  it  quickly. 
Any  pleasure  soon  becomes  stale  unless  it  can  be  dropped  to 
make  place  for  something  new.  Only  by  a  long  series  of  varied 
pleasures  can  life  be  made  an  object  of  desire  to  a  man  in  whom 
the  primitive  appetites  have  lost  their  original  force  and  sunk 
in  his  estimation  below  the  level  of  other  desires.  No  new 
pleasure  can  fill  the  place  of  the  appetite  he  has  lost.  He  can 
secure  a  greater  sura  of  happiness,  but  he  gets  it  only  by  util- 
izing in  turn  the  multitude  of  objects  oflfered  by  nature  and 
learning  to  derive  a  pleasure  from  each  of  them. 

From  this  point  of  view  a  nation  is  perfectly  safe  from  anj^ 
tendency  to  reduce  its  standard  of  life,  unless  there  is  some 
great  change  in  the  national  industries  which  allows  the  intro- 
duction of  cheap  foreign  labor  from  regions  where  the  newer 
forms  of  consumption  are  not  yet  in  full  operation.  In  this 
way  a  lower  class  may  be  substituted  for  a  higher  class  in  par- 
ticular industries  ;  yet  this  change  does  not  destroy  the  higher 
class,  although  it  may  limit  their  numbers.  They  are  forced 
into  other  industries  where  more  energy  is  needed,  or  into  new 
localities  where  the  national  resources  are  not  yet  fully  utilized. 
So  poor  a  use  is  now  made  of  the  land  and  nature  that  a  person, 
goaded  on  by  unsatisfied  desires,  can  find  some  place  where  his 


52  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

mode  of  living  may  be  maintained.  And  besides  these  re- 
sources in  production,  he  has  the  power  to  adjust  his  consump- 
tion more  closely  to  the  conditions  of  his  environment.  The 
weaker  his  appetite  becomes  the  easier  it  is  for  him  to  break 
down  the  barriers  of  habit  and  custom  which  shut  him  out 
from  the  cheaper  kinds  of  food. 

It  is,  moreover,  impossible  for  a  man  with  a  weak  appetite 
to  return  to  the  coarser  diet  of  his  ancestors.  Th^ir  food  is  re- 
pugnant to  him  and  his  stomach  refuses  to  digest  it  in  quanti- 
ties large  enough  to  keep  his  body  healthy  and  his  mind  clear. 

If  the  world  must  be  peopled  by  those  who  live  on  such  a 
diet,  he  and  his  family  will  not  long  form  part  of  it.  If  com- 
petition becomes  too  severe  he  may  injure  himself  through 
overwork,  limit  the  size  of  his  family  or  even  remain  single  ; 
yet  there  is  no  danger  that  he  will  resort  to  a  diet  that  is  re- 
pulsive, or  fall  back  into  a  mode  of  living  that  has  ceased  to 
be  a  source  of  pleasure. 


VII. 

THE   BEST  USE   OF  LAND. 

We  cannot  ascertain  the  full  effects  of  a  change  in  consump- 
tion until  we  discover  its  effect  upon  land  and  its  rent.  The 
available  land  of  a  nation  is  limited  in  quantity,  while  our 
wants  are  so  material  that  they  cannot  be  gratified  without  cre- 
ating a  large  demand  for  land  through  its  products.  When  we 
eat,  drink,  and  clothe  ourselves,  we  consume  commodities  for 
whose  production  a  certain  amount  of  land  is  required.  Fix 
the  quantity  of  land  which  each  person  must  have  to  supply 
his  wants,  and  the  population  which  a  given  tract  can  support 
becomes  fixed  also. 

If  it  takes  fifteen  bushels  of  wheat  to  make  bread  enough  to 
last  one  man  a  year,  and  if  an  acre  of  land  will  raise  only  fifteen 
bushels,  it  is  plain  that  if  a  man  have  only  half  an  acre  he 
must  raise  something  else  than  wheat  or  go  hungry.  So  long 
as  a  community  having  land  of  this  kind  live  on  wheat  we 
could  say  with  certainty  just  how  many  persons  its  land  will 


The  Conswnption  of  Wealth.  53 

support.  There  could  only  be  as  many  men  as  there  were 
acres  of  land .  If,  without  substituting  a  more  productive  crop 
for  wheat  they  should  use  one-sixth  of  their  land  to  raise 
tobacco,  the  number  of  people  would  be  reduced  by  one-sixth. 
Should  they  now  acquire  a  love  for  beer  and  use  a  second  sixth 
of  the  land  to  raise  barley  and  hops  there  would  be  one-third 
less  population  than  there  was  before  these  habits  were  formed. 

The  principle  holds  when  other  articles  than  wheat  are  pro- 
duced. Upon  an  acre  of  land  only  so  much  rye,  corn  or  pota- 
toes can  be  grown.  And  as  the  quantities  of  the  crops  are 
fixed  by  the  kind'  of  soil  and  the  means  of  cultivation  at  hand, 
an  acre  of  land  under  given  conditions  will  support  only  so 
many  people.  In  short,  population  increases  with  every 
change  to  more  productive  crops  and  is  checked  by  a  growing 
demand  for  rarer  articles  or  useless  luxuries. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  civilization,  the  land  problem  is  usu- 
ally the  only  vital  question.  It  is  true  that  even  primitive  men 
have  wants  which  the  products  of  the  soil  cannot  gratify  ;  yet 
these  products  so  nearly  satisfy  all  their  desires  that  there  is 
no  conscious  opposition  between  the  interests  of  such  men,  ex- 
cept for  the  possession  of  land.  If  the  population  exceeds  the 
number  which  can  be  supported  upon  a  given  area  of  land 
cultivated  in  a  crude  primitive  fashion,  there  is  no  solution  of 
the  difficulty  except  by  war,  famine,  or  emigration. 

With  every  increase  of  population,  there  must  be  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  desires  of  the  people,  through  which  their  accus- 
tomed wants  become  less  intense  than  some  new  wants  which 
can  be  satisfied  with  a  less  demand  for  land.  When  a  hunting 
tribe  occupies  a  region,  each  individual  must  occupy  many 
thousand  acres  to  enable  him  to  secure  enough  deer,  buflfalo,  or 
game  to  supply  his  family.  When  the  demand  for  food  be- 
comes changed  from  the  wild  to  domestic  animals,  a  quarter 
of  the  former  space  will  afford  room  for  the  flocks  and  herds 
necessary  to  supply  the  same  family.  A  crude  cultivation  of 
the  soil  can  accompany  another  modification  of  desires,  which 
create  a  demand  for  cereal  productions  ;  and  with  this  change 
comes  another  large  reduction  of  the  quantity  of  land  which 
each   family  requires.     Every  subsequent    change    by  which 


54  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

population  and  production  have  been  increased,  has  been  fol- 
lowing some  change  in  the  demand  for  food.  The  demand  for 
some  well-known  article  of  diet  has  fallen  oflF,  or  at  least  has 
been  relatively  reduced,  and  in  its  place  some  new  article  is 
substituted  which  allows  a  better  use  to  be  made  of  the  land. 

There  is  thus  the  most  intimate  relation  between  the  desires 
of  a  people  and  their  demand  for  land.  Only  as  the  desire  for 
less  expensive  food  grows,  can  the  opposition  between  the  indi- 
vidual interests  of  different  men  be  lessened.  As  we  progress 
in  civilization,  we  are  obliged  to  adjust  ourselves  so  that  in  our 
eating,  drinking,  and  clothing,  we  make  less  demand  on  land. 
Every  family  must  occupy  a  smaller  space  and.  modify  their 
diet  so  that  their  demand  for  food  can  be  satisfied  upon  the 
smaller  tract  to  which  they  are  now  limited. 

For  this  reason,  the  laws  of  consumption  are  of  prime  impor- 
tance in  studying  the  direction  along  which  the  pressure  of  popu- 
lation forces  the  development  of  mankind.  Those  individuals 
or  races  who  have  an  abnormal  desire  for  the  rare  kinds  of 
food  must  give  way  to  their  competitors,  who  can  satisfy  their 
appetites  with  articles  of  which  nature  grants  a  more  abundant 
supply.  Those  families  whose  habits,  tastes  or  fancies  cause 
them  to  reject  a  large  portion  of  the  food  supply  are  surpassed 
by  others,  who  through  a  better  adjustment  to  the  conditions 
of  nature,  have  a  love  for  all  that  variety  which  nature  can 
provide.  Strong  appetites  limit  the  diet  to  those  articles  which 
can  best  satisfy  an  intense  desire  for  food.  Weak  appetites  are 
so  easily  satiated  with  any  one  kind  of  food  that  many  articles 
must  form  a  part  of  the  regular  diet  in  order  that  enough  may 
be  eaten  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  system.  Families  of 
weaker  appetites  are  thus  better  adjusted  to  the  conditions 
which  increase  production  and  create  that  variety  in  demand 
which  allows  the  best  use  of  all  the  land.  As  any  tract  of 
land  can  produce  a  variety  of  articles  at  a  less  cost  than  it  can 
the  same  quantity  of  some  one  or  any  few  articles,  the  struggle 
for  existence  favors  those  who  can  get  pleasure  from  all  kinds 
of  food,  more  than  those  who  have  an  intense  desire  for  a  few 
of  the  rarer  kinds. 

There  is  another  great  evil  connected  with  a  strong  demand 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  55 

for  land,  in  that  it  is  the  cause  of  a  great  increase  in  the  amount 
of  rent.  Rent  is  not  a  fixed  quantity,  depending  solely  upon 
population,  or  upon  the  amount  of  land  cultivated.  It  is  paid 
by  consumers  of  food,  not  because  they  eat  to  live,  but  because 
they  live  to  eat.  There  is  plenty  of  food  which  can  be  obtained 
at  a  low  cost  of  production,  if  the  consumer  would  think  of 
food  merely  as  a  means  of  existence,  and  not  as  the  leading 
source  of  pleasure. 

Men  with  strong  appetites  limit  their  food  supply  to  those 
articles  which  are  most  capable  of  gratifying  the  intense  feelings 
which  they  have  inherited.  The  few  articles  for  which  their 
demand  is  intense  are  thus  raised  in  value  above  their  necessary 
price.  Wheat,  tobacco  and  food  for  cattle  are  examples  of 
crops  with  double  the  price  they  might  have  if  a  less  quantity 
would  supply  the  demand.  In  this  way  the  farmers  are  com- 
pelled to  cultivate  crops  more  often  than  the  best  use  of  their 
land  permits.  Other  tracts  poorly  fitted  for  these  crops  cannot 
be  used  for  what  they  are  best  fitted  by  nature,  because  the 
higher  price  of  the  desired  crops  makes  them  the  more  profita- 
ble to  cultivate.  Such  a  demand  for  food  reduces  the  land  of 
a  nation  to  a  small  part  of  what  it  might  be,  and  causes  this 
part  to  produce  much  less  in  quantity  than  if  a  greater  variety 
in  consumption  prevailed.  Under  such  conditions  the  demand 
for  food  increases  much  more  rapidly  than  the  supply  ;  and  the 
accompanying  increase  in  the  price  of  food  takes  a  large  share 
of  the  produce  of  industry  from  the  producers  and  gives  it  to 
landlords  as  rent. 

The  rise  of  rent  is  the  result  of  a  choice  between  pleasures. 
There  is  no  physical  cause  which  necessitates  a  slower  increase 
of  food  than  of  population.  The  struggle  of  population  for 
food  is  the  result  of  a  universal  choice  of  exclusive  pleasures 
through  which  the  pleasure  of  each  person  reduces  the  pleasures 
which  other  people  can  enjoy.  A  single  loaf  of  bread  or  a 
single  glass  of  beer  can  be  enjoyed  only  when  all  other  persons 
are  excluded  from  their  consumption.  There  must  be  a  new 
production  of  bread  and  beer  for  each  additional  participant  in 
their  enjoyment.  Such  pleasures  are  the  source  of  the  conflict 
between  men,  by  which  the  rent  of  land  is  raised  so  high  that 


56  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

their  wages  will  give  them  but  bare  living.  This  opposition 
between  the  interests  of  different  men  can  be  reduced  only  by 
the  growth  of  new  pleasures  which  they  can  enjoy  in  common. 
A  printer,  for  example,  can  increase  the  number  of  books  and 
newspapers  in  an  edition  with  but  a  slight  increase  of  cost.  It 
cost,  also,  the  King  of  Bavaria  as  much  to  hear  a  favorite  opera 
alone  as  it  would  several  thousand  people  who  had  no  desire  to 
exclude  other  people  from  a  like  pleasure. 

In  the  discussion  of  rent  too  much  attention  has  been  paid 
to  physical  causes.  It  is  perhaps  true  that  the  rent  of  a  field 
can  be  measured  by  the  difference  between  its  fertility  and  that 
of  the  poorest  land  in  use.  Yet,  why  is  the  second  field  at  the 
margin  of  cultivation  ?  Is  it  not  because  the  pleasure  derived 
from  the  food  produced  on  it  is  just  equal  to  the  pain  in  labor 
required  to  cultivate  it  ?  Reduce  the  pleasure  which  men  get 
from  food,  and  this  field  will  go  out  of  cultivation.  A  more 
productive  field  will  now  be  at  the  margin  because  the  pleasure 
of  consuming  its  crops  is  equal  to  the  pain  of  producing  them. 
If  the  appetites,  however,  are  increased,  a  still  poorer  field  will 
be  cultivated.  The  increase  of  labor  needed  to  cultivate  it  will 
be  compensated  by  the  greater  pleasure  which  the  consumption 
of  its  crops  affords. 

The  increase  in  rent  is  therefore  measured  by  the  increase  of 
the  appetite.  Put  men  in  an  environment  where  those  with  the 
stronger  appetites  have  some  advantages,  and  a  steady  increase 
of  rent  would  follow.  Change  this  environment  so  that  those 
with  the  weaker  appetites  gain  the  ascendency,  and  a  fall  in 
rent  will  accompany  each  displacement  of  the  partisans  of  ex- 
clusive pleasures.  The  measure  of  rent  is  rather  to  be  found 
in  the  differences  in  men  than  in  those  of  the  soil.  Had  all 
men  just  enough  appetite  to  induce  them  to  satisfy  their  bodily 
needs,  they  would  not  need  to  pay  rent.  These  men  might  be 
termed  the  no- rent  men.  The  rent  that  other  men  will  pay  for 
land  is  measured  by  the  excess  of  their  appetites  above  the 
appetites  of  the  no-rent  men.  There  is  more  rent  when  the 
difference  in  the  appetites  of  men  increases ;  and  rent  must 
fall  when  the  men  of  strong  appetite  differ  less  from  those  for 
whom  exclusive  pleasures  have  no  charm.     I  do  not,  however, 


Thf  Consumption  of  Wealth.  57 

wish  to  infer  that  in  our  social  state  men  with  the  weakest  ap- 
petites are  the  best.  They  are  used  merely  as  a  type  to  show 
that  if  rent  is  to  be  measured  in  terms  of  differences,  the  differ- 
ences in  men  afford  a  better  measure  of  rent  than  do  those  of 
the  land. 

The  choice  of  the  right  articles  to  consume  is  of  no  greater 
importance  to  the  best  use  of  land  than  is  the  choice  of  the 
right  means  to  produce  them.  The  prominent  aids  to  produc- 
tion we  usually  speak  of  in  an  objective  way  as  knowledge, 
skill,  and  capital.  Capital,  in  particular,  we  are  likely  to  view 
from  a  purely  objective  standpoint  as  a  material  thing  or  object 
which  we  must  have  for  efficient  production.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, the  material  object  which  makes  production  more  efficient, 
but  the  way  in  which  this  object  is  used.  I^abor  and  capital 
are  not  different  things ;  they  are  merely  different  ways  to 
secure  the  same  end.  The  materialization  of  labor  in  objects 
is  only  an  accident  of  one  form  of  laboring.  A  man  wishes  to 
obtain  some  meat,  and  he  cannot  secure  it  without  painful  ex- 
ertion. If  he  endeavors  to  secure  it  one  way,  we  call  the 
exertion  labor ;  if  in  another  way,  we  call  it  capital.  If  he 
goes  forth  to  hunt  or  trap  some  wild  animal,  we  call  the  pain 
he  endures  labor.  If  he  herds  some  cattle  so  that  he  can  secure 
a  regular  supply  of  beef,  the  results  of  past  labor,  which  he 
does  not  consume,  are  regarded  as  capital.  These  cattle  are 
capital,  not  because  they  are  objects,  but  because  they  are  a 
part  of  a  series  of  efforts  to  secure  a  supply  of  beef. 

The  series  of  efforts  which  the  herder  makes  differs  from 
that  of  the  hunter  in  that  they  extend  through  a  longer  period 
of  time.  Both  series  of  efforts  are  painful,  and  thus  are  units 
of  the  same  class  ;  they  are,  however,  of  different  species.  The 
pain  of  the  hunter  is  almost  wholly  that  of  muscular  fatigue. 
The  pains  of  the  herder  are  of  two  classes.  He  must  undergo 
muscular  fatigue  the  same  as  the  hunter  ;  in  addition  he  must 
also  abstain  from  consuming  his  cattle  until  they  are  mature. 
Abstinence  means  self-control,  and  self-control  is  the  cause  of 
pain,  at  least  to  an  uncultivated  man.  The  stronger  the  appe- 
tite and  passions  of  men  are,  the  greater  are  the  pains  of  self- 


58  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

control  and  the  more  are  men  inclined  to  that  form  of  produc- 
tion which  we  call  labor.  Muscular  fatigue  is  not  so  painful 
to  such  men  as  are  the  efforts  to  keep  a  control  over  themselves. 
Hence  they  utilize  only  those  forms  of  production  which  can 
be  effected  by  short  series  of  efforts. 

With  the  gradual  development  of  men,  the  desire  to  have  the 
future  provided  for  creates  a  new  pleasure  ;  and  the  reduction 
of  the  appetite  makes  the  struggle  for  self-control  less  painful. 
The  series  of  efforts  which  men  are  willing  to  make  in  produc- 
tion, are  lengthened  out,  and  that  fund  we  call  capital  comes 
into  use.  Yet  we  do  wrong  to  think  of  capital  as  an  objective 
something  which  is  different  from  the  labor  which  creates  it. 
Subjectively  at  least,  labor  and  capital  are  merely  different 
classes  of  disagreeable  efforts.  Both  classes  of  efforts  assume 
an  objective  form.  Even  the  shortest  of  those  series  of  efforts 
we  call  labor,  makes  objective  changes.  It  is  not  scientific  to 
regard  the  longer  efforts  as  belonging  to  a  separate  class  merely 
because  the  objective  form  thej'^  often  assume  is  of  so  much 
more  permanent  a  character,  since  there  are  still  longer  series 
of  efforts  having  an  increase  of  skill  and  knowledge  as  the 
main  result.  Any  determined  effort  to  educate  a  people  must 
extend  through  a  longer  series  of  years  than  any  plan  to  im- 
prove the  land  or  to  increase  the  supply  of  commodities. 

If  we  look  at  these  series  of  efforts  in  an  objective  way,  we 
may  call  them  all  capital,  and  say  that  skill  and  knowledge 
are  capital  sunk  in  men  as  other  parts  of  capital  are  sunk  in 
land.  In  a  subjective  way,  we  may  view  all  these  efforts  as 
forms  of  skill.  Skill  is  merely  a  way  of  economizing  muscular 
exertion ;  and  the  skilful  man  makes  frequent  use  of  objects 
because  they  enable  him  to  avoid  this  exertion. 

There  is,  then,  a  great  variety  of  choice  among  the  different 
series  of  efforts  through  which  men  get  their  food  from  land. 
The  use  which  a  people  make  of  their  land  depends  upon 
the  relative  disagreeableness  of  the  pains  of  muscular  fatigue, 
and  of  those  of  abstinence  and  self-control.  So  long  as  the 
pains  of  abstinence  and  self-control  predominate,  much  of  the 
land  has  no  economic  use  ;  and  the  part  in  use  does  not  yield 
a  large  return.     With  the  development  of  a  class  of  men  in 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  59 

whom  these  pains  are  less  a  longer  series  of  efforts  in  the  pro- 
duction of  food  is  chosen. 

Take  a  class  of  men  who  dislike  the  effort  of  saving,  and  of 
becoming  skillful  more  than  they  dislike  manual  exertion. 
Such  men  choose  for  cultivation  that  class  of  land  the  return 
from  which  is  small,  and  they  cultivate  it  in  a  way  that  every 
increase  of  labor  reduces  the  average  return.  Put  in  the  same 
region  a  new  class  of  men  who  dislike  the  second  class  of  pains 
more  than  the  first,  and  they  gradually  cease  to  cultivate  those 
fields  whose  return  depends  solely  upon  manual  labor.  They 
now  seek  only  for  fields  where  skill  and  capital  are  the  con- 
trolling elements  in  production.  A  better  use  of  the  land  fol- 
lows, and  more  of  the  land  becomes  good  land.  Couple  with 
this  change  the  fact  that  those  men  in  whom  these  pains  are 
the  least,  have  the  weakest  appetites,  and  thus  demand  the 
greatest  variety  of  food,  and  it  will  be  seen  how  directly  the 
development  of  men  is  connected  with  the  best  use  of  land. 

The  truth  of  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  depends  upon 
this  choice  between  different  kinds  of  pleasures  and  pains. 
The  causes  of  limited  production  can  be  better  understood  by 
grading  men  according  to  their  economic  choices  than  by  grad- 
ing the  land  according  to  its  fertility.  This  law  is  not  so  much 
a  law  of  land  as  of  the  men  who  use  the  land.  The  man  who 
increases  his  capital  and  skill  more  rapidly  than  he  does  his 
labor,  always  gets  a  greater  return  in  proportion  to  his  whole 
effort  in  production.  The  reduction  of  the  average  return  for 
labor  is  not  caused  by  the  increased  use  of  the  inferior  land, 
but  by  a  greater  employment  of  inferior  men.  We  need  not 
fear  an  increase  of  inferior  land  ;  the  quantity  is  limited,  and 
decreases  with  every  increase  of  capital  and  skill.  Could  we 
say  as  much  of  inferior  men,  our  future  would  be  secure. 
Such  men  form  the  real  barrier  to  progress,  and  prevent  that 
use  of  the  land  in  a  way  which  unites  an  abundant  and  varied 
production  with  the  greatest  economy  of  labor. 

The  facts  which  have  been  presented  will,  if  properly  cor- 
related, furnish  the  key  to  the  present  misuse  of  land,  and  the 
high  price  of  food.  Cheap  men,  who  have  inherited  the  strong 
appetites  of  their  primitive  ancestors,  are  yet  so  numerous  that 


6o  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

they  create  a  large  demand  for  land  through  their  love  of  rare 
foods  and  stimulating  drinks.  The  same  causes  retard  the 
accumulation  of  capital,  through  which,  alone,  the  inferior  land 
can  be  changed  into  good  land.  As  a  result,  a  much  larger 
area  of  land  must  be  cultivated  than  would  otherwise  be  neces- 
sary, and  the  higher  price  of  food  needed  to  cultivate  so  much 
inferior  land  without  the  use  of  the  necessary  capital,  takes  a 
large  part  of  the  product  of  industry  from  the  producers  to  go 
as  rent  to  the  owners  of  the  better  land.  Dear  food  means  a 
poor  use  of  much  land,  while  cheap  food  means  a  good  use  of 
a  little  land. 

For  this  reason  the  public  has  the  paramount  interest  in  the 
use  made  of  the  land,  and  a  right  to  restrain  those  forms  of 
consumption  which  create  a  larger  demand  for  land  and  de- 
stroy its  fertility.  The  use  of  liquor  and  tobacco  causes  the 
land  of  whole  States  to  be  diverted  from  its  best  use,  and  its 
soil  made  valueless  through  the  loss  of  its  productive  elements. 
The  mere  waste  of  land  is  of  less  consequence  than  the  divert- 
ing of  other  lands  from  their  best  use,  and  the  scattering  of  the 
population  over  an  immense  area  through  which  they  are  kept 
from  enjoying  the  best  fruits  of  modern  civilization. 

The  interest  of  the  public  in  the  use  of  the  land  is  already  a 
well-recognized  right.  We  would  allow  no  one  to  shut  up  our 
rivers,  or  prevent  the  building  of  railroads,  so  as  to  keep  the 
public  out  of  the  newer  States.  Nor  are  we  willing  that  the 
cattle  barons  of  the  West  should  fence  in  large  tracts  of  land 
for  their  especial  advantage.  There  is,  of  course,  a  great  need 
of  beef ;  but  the  cheaper  foods  are  of  much  more  importance, 
and  beef-raising  must  not  stand  in  the  way  of  a  better  use  of 
the  land.  There  is  even  much  complaint  because  settlers  are 
shut  out  of  little  Oklahoma,  because  the  Indians  do  not  culti- 
vate the  land.  Yet  if  the  Indians  and  cowboys  are  not  allowed 
to  exclude  others  who  would  make  the  land  more  useful  to  the 
public,  the  habits  and  instincts  of  the  cruder  portion  o'f  our 
population  should  not  be  permitted  to  waste  a  much  larger 
portion  of  our  country,  and  make  the  rest  of  it  much  less  avail- 
able for  public  and  private  uses. 

The  demand  for  land,  which  the  diet  of  diflferent  persons  in 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  6i 

a  nation  creates,  is  of  vital  importance  in  determining  which 
class  will  be  displaced  by  the  increase  of  population.  Hunting 
tribes  have  no  chance  of  success  in  opposition  to  those  who 
graze  cattle  ;  and  the  latter  are  in  turn  easily  expelled  by  the 
cultivators  of  the  soil.  And  among  the  more  civilized  races, 
that  class  which  makes  the  best  use  of  the  land  has  an  advan- 
tage over  all  others.  The  family  who  need  twenty  acres  to 
supply  their  wants  cannot  compete  with  a  family  who  get  their 
food  from  ten  acres.  The  increase  of  population  cuts  down  the 
number  of  acres  which  each  family  can  have,  and  necessitates 
the  use  of  more  productive  crops.  The  relative  quantities  of 
the  rarer  articles  are  thus  reduced  ;  while  a  greater  variety  in 
consumption  is  secured. 

This  fact  will  be  the  determining  force  in  deciding  the  grow- 
ing contest  between  the  temperance  and  liquor  parlies  in  this 
country.  The  diet  of  abstainers  creates  a  less  demand  for  land 
than  does  that  of  those  who  have  a  love  for  liquor  and  tobacco. 
The  latter  class  not  only  need  twice  the  land  that  the  same 
number  of  the  former  class  does,  but  they  also  have  double  the 
temptation  to  spend  their  earnings  foolishly.  Abstainers  will, 
thus,  gradually  acquire  a  larger  share  of  the  land  and  capital 
of  this  country,  and  force  the  drinking  class  into  the  less 
favored  occupations,  where  their  rate  of  increase  will  be  reduced. 
There  is  no  way  in  which  the  users  of  liquor  and  tobacco  can 
hold  their  own,  when  their  habits  impose  upon  them  so  great 
an  economic  burden.  The  temperance  people  will  increase  in 
numbers  and  wealth  until  they  are  able  to  crowd  out  or  suppress 
their  opponents.  Their  advantage  is  as  great  as  that  of  the 
power  loom  over  the  hand  loom,  or  of  the  railroad  over  the 
canal.  Of  the  ultimate  result  of  such  a  conflict  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  The  only  question  is  whether  drinkers  shall  be  forced 
to  reform,  or  gradually  be  crushed  beneath  the  weight  of  their 
growing  disadvantage. 


62  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

VIII. 

THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  FUTURE. 

If  a  correct  analysis  has  been  made  of  the  laws  of  consump- 
tion the  obstacles  to  a  rapid  improvement  of  mankind  do  not 
lie  in  the  present  environment.  The  habits  and  appetites  of 
men  were  formed  in  the  environment  of  the  distant  past. 
Human  nature  became  so  adjusted  to  this  environment  that  it 
clings  to  the  old  and  distrusts  the  new.  The  feelings  and 
pleasures  inherited  from  a  long  line  of  ancestors  cannot  change 
as  readily  as  our  productive  power  has  done  ;  and  thus  the 
harmony  between  ourselves  and  our  environment  has  been  dis- 
turbed. We  have  built  a  new  mansion  on  the  hill,  but  we 
still  prefer  the  cottage  in  the  valley.  We  know  how  to  pro- 
duce many  new  things,  but  we  want  to  live  in  about  the  same 
manner  that  our  fathers  did.  We  desire  to  produce  the  new 
because  it  takes  less  labor ;  yet  each  of  us  expects  that  the 
wheels  of  commerce  will,  in  some  hidden  way,  give  us  the 
rarer  old  in  exchange  for  the  more  abundant  new. 

The  obstacles  to  progress  are,  therefore,  in  men  and  not  out- 
side of  them.  The  land  could  give  a  greatly  increased  return, 
if  men  were  willing  to  produce  and  consume  in  a  waj'^  that 
they  could  get  the  greatest  advantage  from  it.  With  the  mass 
of  mankind,  however,  the  strength  of  their  appetites  prevents 
the  best  use  of  the  land,  and  the  effort  of  abstinence  is  so  much 
greater  than  that  of  manual  labor,  that  they  avoid  those  forms 
of  production  where  a  long  series  of  efforts  is  necessary.  In 
this  way  they  overlook  a  large  part  of  the  opportunities  for 
labor  where  the  return  is  greatest,  and  prevent  a  gradual  de- 
velopment of  society  into  a  better  state.  Such  men  are  cheap 
men,  because  the  pains  of  manual  labor  are  so  small  while  the 
strength  of  the  appetite  is  so  great.  They  are  willing  to  work 
very  hard  for  a  little  food,  and  through  the  rapid  increase  of 
their  numbers,  create  a  great  demand  for  land.  The  wants  of 
progressive  men,  however,  increase  more  rapidly  than  does 
the  efl&ciency  of  their  labor  ;  and  as  a  result,  the  higher  classes, 
though  more  efl&cient  than  the  lower,  do  not  have  so  much 
surplus  revenue  to  oflfer  as   rent  for   the  use   of   the  land. 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  63 

Rent  must  be  paid  out  of  the  surplus  revenue  which  producers 
have  after  their  standard  of  living  has  been  provided  for. 
Cheap  labor  thus  becomes  an  obstable  to  the  progress  of  the 
better  classes,  through  the  high  price  of  food  which  causes  it. 
This  obstacle  becomes  a  positive  barrier  to  progress  through 
the  development  of  a  class  of  capitalists  who  furnish  capital  at 
a  low  rate  of  interest.  The  larger  industries  unite  the  advan- 
tages of  cheap  labor  and  low  interest,  and  thus  cause  cheap 
products  and  high  rents ;  cheap  products  always  mean  high 
rents  when  the  laborers  who  produce  them  limit  their  con- 
sumption mainly  to  the  products  of  the  soil.  These  industries 
economize  the  use  of  skilled  labor,  and  are  continually  finding 
ways  in  which  they  can  utilize  the  still  lower  classes  of  men. 
Improved  production  thus  seems  to  strengthen  the  primitive 
appetites  and  pleasures  of  laboring  men  as  long  as  they  are 
directed  in  production  by  a  highly  intellectual  class  who  are 
abundantly  supplied  with  capital. 

If  we  are  to  seek  only  in  production  for  the  causes  which 
determine  who  will  survive,  I  fear  we  must  decide  that  compe- 
tition favors  the  cheaper  man.  The  facts  upon  which  this  opin- 
ion is  based  have  been  frequently  presented  with  the  greatest 
clearness,  and  seem  to  prove  that  the  iron  law  of  wages  is  an 
outcome  of  our  present  tendencies.  This  conclusion  is  defec- 
tive, however,  if  the  laws  of  consumption  are  an  integral  part 
of  economics.  When  we  have  discovered  the  tendency  of 
competition  acting  in  production,  we  have  only  one  side  of  the 
great  problem  we  desire  to  solve.  It  is  certainly  of  importance 
to  know  who  has  the  advantage  in  production,  but  it  is  of  still 
greater  importance  to  know  who  has  the  advantage  in  con- 
sumption. The  higher  classes  cannot  pay  larger  rent  than  the 
lower  classes,  but  they  can  avoid  rent  by  consuming -those 
articles  which  allow  a  better  use  of  the  land.  If  the  better 
man  competes  squarely  with  the  lower  man  by  using  his  in- 
come to  satisfy  his  appetites  in  the  same  way  that  his  com- 
petitor does,  he  is  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  struggle  which 
follows.  He  secures  an  advantage  only  as  he  modifies  his 
consumption,  and  learns  to  enjoy  other  pleasures  than  those 
which   come    from    the   gratification  of   the   appetite.      This 


64  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

change  is  the  result  of  a  slow  and  steady  development  which 
shows  its  effects  only  through  a  long  period.  The  changes  in 
production  are  quick,  and  are  thus  brought  into  prominence. 
Those  in  consumption  are  so  slow  and  steady  that  they  are 
usually  overlooked.  It  takes  a  long  time  for  an  improved 
consumption  to  rectify  the  evils  of  the  increased  competition 
which  follow  a  rapid  development  in  production  ;  yet  the  causes 
modifying  consumption  never  cease  to  operate.  It  will  doubt- 
less take  many  generations  to  produce  as  great  a  change  in 
consumption  as  one  age  can  make  in  production  ;  yet  in  the 
end,  an  equilibrium  will  be  restored,  and  they  will  have  the 
advantage  who  make  the  best  use  of  the  land. 

There  is,  moreover,  one  of  the  great  effects  of  improved  pro- 
duction, which  is  on  the  side  of  the  better  classes.  In  former 
times  the  consumption  of  each  locality  depended  entirely  upon 
the  produce  of  that  locality,  and  the  standard  of  life  was  limited 
to  the  few  articles  which  would  be  cheaply  produced  at  home. 
The  rapid  reduction  of  the  cost  of  transportation  has  largely 
increased  the  number  of  articles  which  are  as  cheap  as  the 
home  produce.  The  consumption  of  all  classes  is  thus  im- 
proved, and  their  wants  become  more  varied,  and  prevent  that 
reduction  of  wages  that  would  otherwise  follow  the  substitu- 
tion of  cheaper  men  in  large  industries. 

Improved  consumption  also  helps  to  maintain  the  rate  of 
wages  in  spite  of  the  adverse  tendencies  of  improved  produc- 
tion by  putting  in  operation  several  causes  which  are  destruc- 
tive of  the  lower  classes  of  men.  While  cheap  men  have  the 
best  talents  of  the  nation  to  organize  and  direct  them  in  pro- 
duction, they  are  left  to  themselves  in  consumption.  Under 
the  new  conditions  in  which  they  are  placed,  they  sacrifice 
their  permanent  interests  to  gratify  their  present  feelings. 
Their  instincts  are  no  longer  a  true  guide  to  keep  them  from 
acts  of  self  destruction.  The  way  in  which  they  crowd  to- 
gether in  tenement  houses,  the  disregard  they  have  for  cleanli- 
ness and  sanitation,  and  the  indifference  they  show  to  the 
wholesomeness  of  their  food,  soon  reduce  their  vitality,  and 
increase  the  death-rate  among  their  families.  The  short-sight- 
edness of  their  employers  in  forcing  them  to  work  under  un- 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  65 

healthy  conditions  adds  greatly  to  the  destructive  tendencies 
by  which  they  are  surrounded.  The  growing  love  of  strong 
drinks  and  tobacco  increases  the  use  of  these  articles  at  the 
expense  of  more  healthy  pleasures,  and  causes  them  to  reduce 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  their  food  and  clothing  to  gratify 
these  abnormal  appetites.  In  fact,  there  is  the  same  exploit- 
ing of  the  advantages  of  cheap  labor  as  there  is  of  cheap  land. 
The  permanent  interests  of  the  lower  classes  have  little  weight 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  profit  most  by  their  labor  and  trade  ; 
the  employer  works  them  too  many  hours,  and  the  landlords 
cut  them  oflF  from  pure  air  and  light ;  the  saloon  seeks  to  create 
in  them  a  craving  for  liquor  ;  the  grocer  adulterates  their  food, 
and  the  merchant  hides  the  defects  in  his  goods  by  cheap  colors 
made  from  poisonous  dyes.  This  combination  of  interests 
which  preys  upon  cheap  laborers  hastens  the  destruction  of  the 
lowest  classes,  and  shortens  the  period  through  which  their 
gains  might  be  extended  by  a  more  far-sighted  policy. 

The  influence  of  improved  consumption  will  either  destroy  or 
develop  the  laborers  according  as  their  choice  in  consumption 
is  good  or  bad  in  their  modified  condition.  One  part  of  them 
gratify  their  present  appetites,  and  are  thus  forced  into  an 
environment  which  soon  destroys  them  and  their  families. 
The  other  part  learn  to  adjust  their  desires  more  fully  to  their 
surroundings,  and  thus  avoid  the  destructive  influences  to 
which  others  are  exposed.  The  combined  influences  of  both 
tendencies  is  to  raise  the  standard  of  life.  The  lowest  portion 
of  the  laborers  are  led  on  to  extermination,  and  they  cease  to 
leave  behind  them  any  descendants  with  their  characteristics. 
The  higher  portion  thus  become  the  whole  laboring  popula- 
tion, with  a  greater  variety  in  their  standard  of  life. 

The  tendency,  therefore,  of  improved  production  to  substi- 
tute a  lower  for  a  higher  man,  is  in  harmony  with  a  gradual 
increase  in  the  standard  of  life.  Employers  will  always  seek 
the  cheapest  laborers,  yet  the  cheapest  man  of  one  age  will  be 
a  better  man  than  the  cheapest  man  of  the  preceding  age. 
A  larger  proportion  of  the  cheapest  men  will  doubtless  be  used 
with  every  improvement  in  production  ;  but  it  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  development  of  the  cheaper  man  is  one  of 


66  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

the  conditions  which  helps  him  drive  out  his  superior.  The 
tendency  to  employ  cheaper  men  is  a  permanent  disadvantage 
only  where  the  environment  is  favorable  to  the  survival  of  a 
lower  class  of  men.  If  the  laborers  could  be  isolated  in  the 
country,  where  pure  air  and  sanitation  are  of  little  moment, 
and  where  there  is  but  little  variety  in  consumption,  very 
inferior  men  could  live  and  rear  healthy  families.  Under  these 
conditions,  improved  production,  if  the  scale  of  the  industry  was 
not  enlarged,  might  lead  to  a  permanentreduction  of  thestandard 
of  life.  Our  large  cities,  however,  do  not  give  an  environment 
free  from  temptation  and  disease.  They  oj0fer  so  many  choices 
in  consumption  that  men  steadily  degenerate  or  improve.  The 
first  class  are  swept  ofiF  by  disease  and  vice,  and  the  second  class 
are  left  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  improved  consumption. 

This  tendency  for  progressive  nations  to  develop,  even  if  it 
must  come  through  the  self-destruction  of  the  lowest  classes, 
cannot  be  disproved  by  the  many  available  examples  to  the 
contrary  from  primitive  races  in  countries  like  China  or 
India.  There  cheap  men  survive  because  they  are  kept  from 
disease  by  a  pleasant  out-door  life  and  from  new  forms  of 
temptation,  like  whiskey  and  opium,  by  their  seclusion  from 
the  rest  of  the  world.  Their  institutions  and  habits  are  so 
firmly  fixed  that  they  are  protected  from  the  worse  as  well  as 
shut  out  of  the  better.  The  barriers  to  progress  are  also  the 
obstacles  to  decay.  Break  down  these  barriers,  and  each  one 
becomes  free  to  choose  between  health  and  vice.  The  weak 
are  thus  cut  off",  and  the  progressive  create  a  new  society  more 
in  harmony  with  their  present  environment. 

The  conflicting  tendencies  which  come  from  the  opposing 
forces  in  improved  production  and  consumption,  need  perhaps 
a  fuller  illustration  to  bring  out  the  resulting  tendencies  more 
plainly. 

Suppose  a  b  c,  etc.,  represent  a  graded  series  of  standards  of 
life  of  which  a  is  the  highest.  As  improvements  in  production 
\  tend  to  favor  a  cheaper  man  because  they  make  the  pro- 
I  cesses  of  production  more  mechanical,  with  every  improve- 
I  ment  the  standard  of  life  would  tend  to  sink  to  some  lower 
&  point :    beginning  from,   say   d,   it  would  gradually  sink 


The  Consumptio7i  of  Wealth.  67 

through  e  and/ to ^.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  results  of 
improved  consumption  became  prominent,  an  opposite  tend- 
ency would  make  itself  felt.  Laborers  having  g  as  their 
standard  of  life,  would  either  develop  enough  to  make/  their 
standard  of  life,  or  yield  to  reductive  influences  of  improved 
consumption,  and  gradually  die  out.  The  standard  of  life 
would  now  equal  /,  and  wages  must  rise  to  that  amount. 
With  the  next  large  improvement  in  consumption,  the  laborers 
with  /  as  their  standard  of  life  would  yield  to  the  snares  of 
their  new  conditions  in  consumption,  or  rise  in  the  scale  of 
existence  until  e  became  their  standard  of  life.  Employers 
would  now  be  forced  again  to  increase  wages,  unless  they 
could  import  laborers  from  regions  where  the  new  forms  of 
consumption  had  not  yet  made  their  influence  felt.  With 
each  farther  improvement  in  consumption  a  change  of  like 
degree  would  come  over  the  lowest  class  of  laborers.  The 
weaker  part  come  under  more  destructive  influences,  while 
the  better  part  are  aided  in  their  endeavors  to  get  into  the  class 
above  them. 

Were  it  not  for  the  migration  of  the  laborers,  these  influ- 
ences would  quickly  bring  their  effects  into  prominence.  The 
permanent  evils  of  improved  production  arise  from  this  source. 
The  less  civilized  localities  are  sending  a  constant  stream  of 
laborers  to  our  great  industrial  centres,  where  they  drive  out 
the  old  workmen,  or  at  least  keep  their  wages  at  a  minimum. 
Under  these  conditions,  the  influence  of  improved  consump- 
tion operates  but  slowly,  as  the  new-comers  feel  the  full  effect 
of  their  new  environment  only  after  several  generations  have 
passed  away.  It  also  often  happens  that  as  soon  as  they  feel 
enough  of  the  effects  of  improved  consumption  to  require  an 
increase  of  wages,  they  are  in  turn  displaced  by  a  fresh  class 
of  immigrants.  Yet  even  in  this  extreme  case  the  future  is 
not  without  hope,  although  doubtless  the  time  for  a  radical 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  is  verj' 
much  delayed.  A  permanent  solution  of  these  difficulties  can 
come  only  when  improved  processes  in  production  are  made 
use  of  in  the  states  from  which  the  migration  can  come.  When 
all  nations  give  up  their  isolated  ways  of  living,  and   make 


68  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

property  and  liberty  so  secure  that  the  best  methods  of  pro- 
duction can  be  introduced,  each  nation  can  employ  its  own 
laborers  in  its  own  industries.  The  source  of  cheap  labor  will 
thus  be  cut  off,  and  the  laws  of  consumption  will  no  longer  be 
obscured. 

The  fact  that  improved  production  will  in  the  end  cure  its 
own  evils,  does  not  relieve  society  from  the  obligation  to  work 
for  the  same  end.  The  period  needed  for  the  universal  intro- 
duction of  improved  production  is  a  long  one  at  its  best,  and 
can  be  much  shortened  by  intelligent  action  on  the  part  of 
society.  The  process,  too  by  which  a  natural  evolution  is 
carried  through,  is  a  very  heartless  one.  It  destroys  the  weak 
while  it  protects  the  strong.  The  man  of  the  future  must 
have  a  very  large  group  of  qualities  strongly  developed  in 
him,  to  make  him  conform  to  nature.  Skill,  economy,  self- 
control,  and  forethought  must  be  combined  in  every  man,  with 
a  love  of  home  and  nature,  and  future  welfare.  Whoever  has 
the  greater  number  of  these  and  other  needed  qualities,  dis- 
places his  weaker  brother  by  forcing  him  to  work  and  live 
under  conditions  which  lower  his  vitality,  and  encourage  dis- 
ease and  vice.  Without  some  aid  from  society,  the  lower 
classes  of  to-day  will  be  pushed  to  the  wall,  and  the  world 
will  be  peopled  only  by  the  descendants  of  those  who  unite  in 
themselves  the  greatest  number  of  productive  qualities.  This 
change  grinding  along  so  slowly  will  create  much  friction  be- 
tween the  diflFerent  classes  in  society  if  the  immigration  of 
cheap  men  is  not  restricted. 

In  aiding  the  development  of  the  lower  classes,  rather  than 
allowing  them  to  be  destroyed  in  the  struggle  for  existence, 
the  motive  should  be  a  love  for  humanity,  and  not  the  neces- 
sities of  social  progress.  There  need  be  no  fear  that  society 
will  cease  to  progress.  The  problem  is  to  shorten  the  period 
of  transition  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  bring  as  large  a  pro- 
portion as  possible  of  our  present  population  into  harmony 
with  their  environment,  I  think  also,  that  the  laboring  classes 
have  a  claim  upon  society,  due  to  the  peculiar  circumstances 
which  now  impede  their  progress  to  a  much  greater  extent 
than  formerly.     Production  on  a  small  scale,  and  a  low  price 


The  Consumption  of  Wealth.  69 

for  land,  aflFord  remarkable  inducements  for  labor  and  saving. 
The  smaller  producer  readily  finds  opportunities  to  secure  a 
large  return  for  his  labor,  in  a  way  that  will  develop  his  ability 
and  skill.  Under  present  conditions,  it  takes  a  much  more 
able  man  than  formerly  to  seize  right  opportunities  to  enable 
him  to  pass  from  the  laboring  to  the  employing  class. 

In  consumption,  also,  the  diflSculties  of  improvement  are 
much  increased.  Drinking,  smoking,  and  other  amusements 
which  tend  to  the  wrong  direction  are  much  cheapened  ;  while 
music,  art,  and  education  have  become  in  their  higher  forms 
more  costly.  The  standard  of  life  of  the  lowest  classes  has,  at 
best,  remained  what  it  was.  There  is  thus  a  growing  gap  be- 
tween the  two  classes,  which  it  is  hard  for  individuals  to 
bridge.  They  are,  thus,  cut  off  from  development  througn 
the  continuity  of  the  graded  scale  of  growing  pleasures  by 
which  society  as  a  whole  is  passing  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
order  of  consumption.  The  first  steps  in  the  natural  scale  by 
which  the  better  classes  were  themselves  aided  iij  their  de- 
velopment have  been  destroyed  by  the  changes  due  to  pro- 
gress. Society  must  rebuild  them,  if  it  wishes  the  lower 
classes  to  develop  in  the  same  way  that  the  higher  classes 
have  done.  Men  with  intense  appetites  and  passions  cannot 
be  induced  to  modify  their  consumption  unless  the  first  steps 
in  the  education  to  a  better  state  are  made  free.  When  the 
higher  classes  were  in  the  same  mental  state  that  the  lower 
classes  now  are,  their  environment  furnished,  without  any  cost, 
the  pleasures  needed  for  their  development.  In  the  environ- 
ment of  to-day,  these  pleasures  are  costly  to  individuals,  and 
will  not  be  chosen  by  them  unless  society  is  willing  to  educate 
in  them  an  appreciation  of  these  pleasures.  The  farther  so- 
ciety as  a  whole  is  separated  from  the  primitive  conditions  of 
our  forefathers,  the  greater  is  the  gap  over  which  society  must 
carry  its  weaker  members,  if  they  are  to  be  made  a  healthy 
progressive  part  of  the  social  organism. 

All  our  religious  bodies,  for  example,  owe  their  origin  to 
periods  when  religious  instruction  was  free.  The  States  main- 
tained the  churches,  while  the  dissenters  worshiped  in  houses, 
or  even  in  the  woods  :  and  the  newer  sects  have  arisen  under 


70  The  Consumption  of  Wealth. 

similar  conditions.  The  name  of  camp-meeting  shows  how 
inexpensive  was  the  mode  in  which  the  Methodists  made  their 
beginnings.  Church  services  to-day  are  very  costly,  and  the 
lower  classes  will  be  cut  off  from  them,  if  more  effort  is  not 
made  to  make  the  churches  free.  The  want  of  harmony  in 
religious  opinion  compels  society  to  leave  religious  instruction 
wholly  to  private  enterprise  ;  but  on  this  account  there  is  much 
greater  reason  why  the  State  should  furnish  other  education  as 
free  as  possible.  It  is  now  too  late  to  expect  that  a  better  con- 
sumption of  wealth  will  come  of  itself  to  the  lower  classes. 
With  every  step  in  social  progress,  more  of  this  free  education 
will  be  needed,  if  the  weaker  portions  of  society  are  to  be  led 
along  the  road  the  more  progressive  have  already  traversed. 
Society  must  adopt  a  vigorous  educational  policy,  or  shut  its 
eyes  while  the  destructive  tendencies  of  modern  civilization 
slowly  force  the  weak  and  unwary  into  a  life  of  misery  and 
vice. 


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